The scientific and educational systems in Georgia and Armenia face the same challenges that need to be overcome through combined efforts and regional programs. This is the view that the Ministers of Education and Science of Georgia and Armenia shared during their meeting in Yerevan.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia, the delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Education and Science Alexandre Jejelava is on an official visit to Armenia.  During the meeting, the Ministers signed a memorandum. Armenia’s Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan noted that the memorandum was not only a memorandum of intentions, but also a memorandum that is aimed at helping establish task forces through which actions will be taken in just a matter of months. As reported the Ministry of Education and Science, according to the memorandum, the Georgian party is committed to exempt citizens of Armenia from the tuition fees of Georgian state universities, if the tuition fee does not exceed 2,250 Georgian monetary units, and the Armenian party is committed to exempt citizens of Georgia from the tuition fees of Armenian state universities, if the tuition fee does not exceed AMD 1,000,000.

“After Alexandre Jejelava was appointed minister, drastic and serious changes have taken place in our bilateral relations, particularly in the spheres of general education, secondary and higher education and in the field of science in the sense that we will try to carry out practical programs in order to consider the educational issues facing our two countries and find relevant solutions. Our countries are in the same stage of educational reforms and face the same issues, and there is truly great potential for cooperation not only in the bilateral format, but also in the direction of Europe,” Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan said, reported the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Education and Science.

He noted that Armenia needed to view the two countries as a common educational territory with the same problems and the same value system.

“One of my first working visits was a visit to the Armenian teachers in Akhalkalak. This goes to show once again that the cooperation between our two countries has been at the top level over the past decade, and I think it is currently at the highest level,” the Georgian Minister said.

Alexandre Jejelava emphasized that the first area of cooperation would be improvement of the quality of Armenian schools and the plan for teaching Armenian.

“Training courses for young teachers is very important, and it will help prepare them to enter schools and make major changes. We plan on carrying out certain processes in the sphere of higher education and believe that we can do all this at the international level,” the Georgian Minister noted, emphasizing that the first results of the work of the to-be-established task forces would be seen by the end of the year.