Armen Ashotyan, the Minister of Education and Culture, said during an interview the other day that he had given strict political instructions to the college rectors – they must strictly follow the Parties, Education and Public Education Law in their educational institutions.
We know, however, from the previous experience that implementing the minister’s instruction is not that realistic, because the college rectors have party preferences and use their leverage if necessary – students’ unions of educational institutions are mainly comprised of partisan youth too.
Armen Mazmanyan
Aravot.am inquired from some college rectors whether it was possible to be loyal to the “strict political instruction”, if we use Armen Ashotyan’s definition. Heads of colleges who had become rectors through RPA leverage said unanimously that during every election party propaganda had been ruled out in their colleges.
Aram Simonyan, the rector of the most Republicanized college, Yerevan State University, said, “It is not a secret that party propaganda, activities at the expense of classes and work have been ruled out and cannot be in our college at all. The opinion in the press that the head of our students’ union and his deputy are also members of a party and politicized is not right. There is no such thing.” Armen Mazmanyan, the rector of the Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinematography, said at first that he hadn’t understood the question well, he couldn’t imagine what we were talking about, and shortly afterwards added, “I am not a member of a party, how can I carry out party activities? No one has the right to spread propaganda of neither his party, nor his sex, nor else his personality in the state educational system. He is a professor, he is paid for a class and has to give it and outside the building he is free to do what he wants, he can preach… There is no party cell in our institute, by the way, including the Republican Party.”
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Aram Simonyan
Arshaluys Tarverdyan
Arshaluys Tarverdyan, the rector of the Agricultural Academy, also assured that everything was right in their institution, “In case of the Agricultural University, the previous elections showed that the implementation of the minister’s instruction is absolutely realistic. I am not a member of a party, I have never been and I think that there must not be any political activities in the university, particularly, at the threshold of an election, college must be a strong organization and only educational, that principle must be secured inside the college unequivocally. On the other hand, any student and professor outside the college territory are free to have a political position.”
Derenik Dumanyan
Derenik Dumanyan, the rector of the Medical University, said through his press secretary the following, “We haven’t carried out any political activities among the students and professors and we don’t intend to do that either – both student and professor, as any Armenian citizen, have the right to have political views, be a member or support any party outside the university walls, that is their right.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
