On 4 April 2025, a visit organized within the framework of the “Budgets for Citizens” project was held at the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia. Young specialists and CSO/Media representatives participating in the second stream of the budget training programme attended the visit.

The main objective of the visit was to get familiarized with the programmes planned in the budget of Education Sector and to develop sectoral knowledge.

Ms Tamara Sargsyan, Head of the General Education Department, Ms Veronika Khorasanyan, Head of the Strategic Planning Department, Ms Anush Lalazaryan, Head of the General Education and Extracurricular Education Policy Development and Analysis Department, Mr. Karen Manukyan, Head of the Vocational Education and Training Department, and other representatives of the department of the RA MoESCS welcomed the participants of the visit.

At the beginning of the meeting, the ALA representative Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan presented the goals and objectives of the programme and the visit, noting the work done aimed to develop the knowledge and skills of the trained CSOs/Media representatives and the young specialists.

The representatives of the Ministry, in turn, touched upon the budget programmes and measures in the education sector, their financing, and expectations for the future.

ASUE student Zhaneta Vardanyan was interested why the allocations for the budget of the “Safe School” Programme in 2024 was reduced by 83.3%, taking into account the direction of Armenia’s state policy in this area. In response to the question, representatives of the MoESCS noted that the school construction section was separated from that programme, and a new “Creation, Construction, Improvement of Public Educational and Preschool Institutions” Programme was established.

In response to the question of ASUE student Narek Aleksanyan about teaching the subject “Artificial Intelligence” in schools, the representative of the ministry informed that an experimental program for this subject has already been introduced in 16 high schools since 2023, which has recorded good results and will gradually be introduced in other schools as well.

The participants concluded the meeting with mutual satisfaction and words of gratitude.

The “Budgets 4 Citizens” (B4C) action (8 December, 2022 – 7 December, 2026) is being implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with partners “Economic Development and Research Center” (EDRC) NGO and “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic).