More participants from Armenia will soon join the worldwide community of students, who learn Armenian through AVC’s educational programs.
On December 15, 2017, the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia and AVC signed a partnership agreement to provide Armenian language education for refugees and long-term migrants, including Syrian-Armenians. AVC will organize Armenian courses for 80 people annually, thus supporting their social integration.
The educational course will be based on the innovative hybrid teaching model, which combines the advantages of both classroom and distance learning approaches. "This is the first hybrid class that AVC will establish in Armenia for refugees, building upon our experience and capacities for online education. We are proud to partner with the Ministry on this issue", said Dr. Yervant Zorian, the AVC Founding President.
In 2017, a total of 20 Armenian schools in different countries participated in the hybrid education courses offered by AVC, including those that recently joined the program: the AGBU Paris Saturday School (France), the Armenian Evangelical College (Beirut, Lebanon), A.G.B.U. Manoogian-Demirdjian School (Canoga Park, USA) , Armenian classes at St. Gregory the Enlightener Armenian Church ( New York, USA) Hamazkaine Arshak & Sophie Galstaun School and LOOYCE Armenian Saturday School (Sidney, Australia). Several other schools, such as the Armenian Sunday School in Auckland, New Zealand, Sydney Saturday School in Australia, AGBU Haskovo Saturday School and AGBU Burgas Saturday School in Bulgaria are taking steps to begin the Armenian courses in the near future.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan highly commended on AVC’s work in preserving the Armenian identity. “When we say that Armenians all over the world should stay connected, when the structure and geographical distribution of the Diaspora radically changes, the only solution is to implement programs that provide an opportunity for people living outside of the Armenian environment to remain part of Armenian life, education and civilization”, Minister Mkrtchyan said.
"Education, culture, humanitarian and social-economic programs have always been the priority of AGBU’s mission. This initiative combines the educational and humanitarian components to help our Syrian-Armenian brothers and sisters integrate into their ancestral homeland more quickly and easily”, AGBU Armenia President, AGBU Central Board Member Vasken Yacoubian said.
Levon Mkrtchyan stressed the importance of applying e-learning methods in Armenian universities as a key component of modern and quality education. "The work done by the Armenian Virtual College is educational for us. Their technical solutions, procedures and forms can easily be applied in our e-learning programs”, he said.
During the event, Noobar Yaghobian, Head of the Armenian Society of New Zealand, Megerditch Basma, Armenian Language teacher in AGBU Paris Saturday school and Sonia Avakian-Bedrossian, Chairperson of the AGBU Sofia Chapter, joined in via the virtual Global Forum and shared their experiences with AVC’s e-learning programs.
