Recently, my colleague Karpis Pashoyan published some telling information.
One of the participants in the government’s “Education is Fashionable” campaign at the Matenadaran was a former RPA-affiliated principal — the same one who had dismissed Karpis back in 2015 for refusing to campaign for the RPA and for participating in the “No” movement (opposing the draft constitutional amendments). A small but very significant detail.
What does it mean to participate in a campaign like “Education is Fashionable”?
(By the way, it’s unfortunate that the event took place at the Matenadaran — it seems there’s nothing sacred anymore.)
To take part in such a campaign means, by default, to accept that the current Prime Minister and his family are the ones best suited to educate society, to teach others wisdom. In terms of “flattering potential,” this campaign can only be compared to something like “Long Live the Bicycle.”
For someone riding the wave of flattery, it doesn’t really matter who they fawn on. When the government changes, these same school principals will happily take part in campaigns like “Standing on Your Head is Fashionable” or “Long Live curling.”
Everything depends on the preferences of the next monarch.
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The same goes for the directors of state schools and medical institutions. It is irrelevant which government they serve. The recent elections in Yerevan and Gyumri clearly proved this.
The important thing for these people is not to lose their positions — and that’s exactly what would happen if they didn’t “work well” for the authorities or failed to participate in their fawn-on-campaigns.
So, it’s clear that the problem is not personal — it’s systemic.
These people are entirely dependent on the government.
If school principals (and, as Karpis’s example shows, even teachers) want to keep their jobs, they are forced to do what they do.
That’s why the fundamental issue is dependence.
The real challenge is this: how do we eliminate that dependence?
How do we build a mechanism of independence that doesn’t rely on the goodwill of the ruling authorities?
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
