The optimism of the Minister of Culture

More than 10 billion for science

The parliament has been discussing the state budget of the Republic of Armenia for a week already and since unexpected political developments have taken place during that same week, the budget was sort of neglected. Yesterday we were present at the discussion of the budget and found out that expenses on education (expenses on state government apparatus preservation and science not included) provided for by the 2012 budget are 108045.9 million AMD. The main part of the education expenses, 69331.6 million AMD, will be spent on general education. The average wage rate per month, including additional payments, in 2012 will be 117.9 thousand AMD, the average wage per month of administrative workers will be 176.2 thousand AMD, the average wage of bookkeepers will be 87.7 thousand AMD, and the average wage of service workers will be 33.1 thousand AMD. In 2012 the average wage of teachers per month, including additional payments, will be 114.8 thousand AMD. The Specialized Secondary Education will get 3437.6 million AMD. Compared to 2011 there will be a growth of 273.2 million AMD or 8.6 percent, the high education will get 7732.5 million AMD, which is 16.1 million AMD or 0.2 percent more than in 2011, despite the fact that the number of students has decreased by 1.9 thousand.
We inquired from Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education, whether he thought that the amount provided for was enough. According to the Minister, “The education is one of the areas where any additional investment is justified and there is always need for money, because developments happen so quickly that the financing must be as much as to catch up with the developments. The budget we have in 2012 is absolutely sufficient for carrying out large-scale educational reforms, which started many years ago in the Republic of Armenia. No reforms or changes provided for will be deprived of financial aid and support. I want to particularly stress that despite the education budget has nominally decreased, since some projects have ended, nevertheless the finances for the content of education have increased by five billion and this gives us confidence that we will implement educational reforms provided for with the same consistency and success in 2012. We will try to get finances from the private sector, international organizations and donors for specific projects and there are such expectations, because the Ministry works very efficiently in order to get investments particularly from international organizations. I want to stress that finances for the science provided for by the budget have crossed 10 billion AMD margin for the first time and we can be more optimistic about the future of the scientific system thanks to the constant growth.”