On 13-22 March, Armenian language teacher Astghik Balayan hosted a training course at Gevorg Tahtaian Sunday School and Armenian Saturday schools of London. The training course is part of the 2014-15 Program for Support to the Solution to Key Educational and Cultural Issues of Armenian Communities carried out by the RA Ministry of Diaspora.

The training course brought together 39 teachers and representatives of education committees. The course was mainly practical and was aimed at teaching schoolchildren the Armenian alphabet effectively, providing modern approaches to enhancing learners’ ability to read, as well as presenting the features of efficient methods for developing speech and enhancing literal speech.

The expert became familiar with the daily activities at the schools, participated in lessons and talked to the children and their parents.

Astghik Balayan gave the schools gifts from the RA Ministry of Diaspora and called on the representatives to show more active participation in the programs and events for the rapprochement of Armenia-Diaspora relations and homeland recognition.

The expert assures that the main difficulties facing Armenian schools of London are due to the lack of their own property. Teachers have to move their instructional materials from one institution to the next every day. There are also problems with enrollment since Armenian families are losing interest in Armenian and have different attitudes towards the language. So, teachers always need methodical support and new instructional materials.

Principal of Tahtaian Sunday School Ruzanna Tatulian and Principal of the Armenian Saturday School Ramela Ghazarian, who sent letters of gratitude to the RA Ministry of Diaspora for organizing a training program for teachers, mentioned that Balayan had provided the teachers of the community with necessary training materials and has enthused the teachers and students with his work.

The principals voiced hope that such programs would be ongoing and requested more supporting materials for the schools.