Armenia’s Education, Science, Culture and Sport Minister Zhanna Andreasyan has said nothing is being removed from the country’s history curriculum and that the subject will be taught in more detail rather than less, speaking at a press conference on Friday.
Andreasyan was asked whether educational programs would change following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statements about a “Real Armenia,” and specifically whether the words “Ararat” and “Western Armenia” would be taken out of history textbooks. Sputnik Armenia reported the exchange.
“Our history is our history, and in these circumstances and these realities we should not reduce or change the teaching of history. On the contrary, we should carry it out in even more detail, more thoroughly,” she said. “We must know our history and analyze it in all its details. In that sense, talking about any reduction of content is entirely meaningless.”
Andreasyan said the ministry made the same point when the school subject «????? ???????????», the history of the Armenians, was renamed «????????? ???????????», the history of Armenia.
“At that time we placed particular emphasis on how we look at our history. We must look at our history from the positions of today’s Republic of Armenia,” she said. “We must analyze our history and understand how its various episodes played a role in the loss and the strengthening of statehood.”
She said students should come to see the state and statehood as the highest value, and to understand from Armenia’s historical episodes what parallels can be drawn to the present.
The Armenian government approved the rename in 2024, and the ministry said at the time that the curriculum itself would not change. Andreasyan has said before that history textbooks would not undergo ideological change.
The ministry has declared 2026 a Year of Reading, which Andreasyan said is included in the government’s new program as a priority direction.
The academic year opens within the 9th International Book Festival on September 4, with separate discussions on how to promote reading. The ministry has divided the year into months with different focuses, and September begins with the national epic.
“We will start September with our epic, and ‘Daredevils of Sassoun’ will be the main topic for our schools to work on and conduct reading-related activities around,” Andreasyan said.
Teacher and student conferences dedicated to reading are planned for October and November. Libraries and museums will take part, and the Museum of Literature and Art will run a program called “What Our Writers Read.”
Educational artificial intelligence tools become available to upper grades and the higher education system in September, through a partnership with Firebird and OpenAI providing 50,000 subscriptions. Schools will receive guidelines and videos to support their use.
