On October 30, 2024, the “CHANGING EDUCATION: CHALLENGES OF UNIVERSAL INCLUSION” international conference was launched in cooperation with Armenian State Pedagogical University after Kh. Abovyan and Republican Pedagogical-Psychological Center (RPPC).
Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia Araksia Svajyan, RPPC Director Lilit Mnatsakanyan, ASPU Rector Srbuhi Gevorgyan, and Dean of ASPU Faculty of Special and Inclusive Education Gohar Hovyan delivered welcome speeches.
Welcoming the attendees, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports A. Svajyan highlighted key points regarding the priorities of organizing universal inclusive education. She attached importance to the fact that alongside the multiple successes in external indicators, there are numerous problems concerning qualitative indicators, expressing hope that the reports and discussions of the Conference will provide an opportunity to find solutions to these problems and confront the challenges.
A. Svajyan also addressed the pilot programs for transforming special schools into resource-centers and having resource-classrooms in schools, the difficulties in organizing these processes, and the mechanisms for overcoming them. She emphasized the need for the efficient use of all efforts and resources aimed at improving the quality of inclusive education.
In her speech, RPPC Director L. Mnatsakanyan highlighted the importance of children accepting each other’s diversity. Considering the introduction of modern technologies and the application of new methodologies in the context of changing education, she especially attached importance to the comprehensiveness of the perception of the idea of inclusion from the perspective of providing education to everyone in accordance with their capabilities and equal opportunities, highlighting the role of RPPC and TPPSCs in the effective implementation of the process.
During the “Challenges of Inclusive Education” plenary discussion, L. Mnatsakanyan addressed the reforms of universal inclusive education, in particular, the introduction of mandatory positions of teacher assistant and psychologist in education institutions, changes in the school financing procedure aimed at ensuring an accessible physical environment and reasonable adaptations, the pilot program for introducing resource-classrooms in schools, the development of the assessment procedure and toolkit for children with exceptional abilities, the update of the SEN assessment toolkit, other actions implemented by RPPC and TPPSCs, as well as the challenges of the field. She noted that the Conference is the best platform for exchanging ideas and getting acquainted with new approaches and models in the process of forming inclusion as a value and attitude.
The plenary discussion will be followed by reports and master classes, involving about 30 specialists from Armenia and abroad.
30.10.2024
