Armenia Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Science, technology and education== ===Science and technology=== {{Main|Science and technology in Armenia}} Research spending is low in Armenia, averaging 0.25% of GDP over 2010–2013. However, the statistical record of research expenditure is incomplete, as expenditure by privately owned business enterprises is not surveyed in Armenia. The world average for domestic expenditure on research was 1.7% of GDP in 2013.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002354/235406e.pdf|title=Countries in the Black Sea basin. In: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030|last1=Erocal|first1=Deniz|last2=Yegorov|first2=Igor|publisher=UNESCO|year=2015|isbn=978-92-3-100129-1|location=Paris|pages=324–41|access-date=13 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630025557/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002354/235406e.pdf|archive-date=30 June 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> [[File:GERD GDP ratio for the Black Sea countries, 2001–2013.svg|thumb|Gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) to GDP ratio for the Black Sea countries, 2001–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 12.3.]] The country's ''Strategy for the Development of Science 2011–2020'' envisions that 'by 2020, Armenia is a country with a knowledge-based economy and is competitive within the European Research Area with its level of basic and applied research.' It fixes the following targets:<ref name=":0" /> * Creation of a system capable of sustaining the development of science and technology; * Development of scientific potential, modernization of scientific infrastructure; * Promotion of basic and applied research; * Creation of a synergistic system of education, science and innovation; and * Becoming a prime location for scientific specialization in the European Research Area. Based on this strategy, the accompanying ''Action Plan'' was approved by the government in June 2011. It defines the following targets:<ref name=":0" /> * Improve the management system for science and technology and create the requisite conditions for sustainable development; * Involve more young, talented people in education and research, while upgrading research infrastructure; * Create the requisite conditions for the development of an integrated national innovation system; and * Enhance international co-operation in research and development. [[File:GERD in the Black Sea region by sector of performance, 2005 and 2013.svg|thumb|GERD in the Black Sea region by sector of performance, 2005 and 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 12.5.]] Although the ''Strategy'' clearly pursues a 'science push' approach, with public research institutes serving as the key policy target, it nevertheless mentions the goal of establishing an innovation system. However, the main driver of innovation, the business sector, is not mentioned. In between publishing the ''Strategy'' and ''Action Plan'', the government issued a resolution in May 2010 on ''Science and Technology Development Priorities for 2010–2014''. These priorities are:<ref name=":0" /> * Armenian studies, humanities and social sciences; * Life sciences; * Renewable energy, new energy sources; * Advanced technologies, information technologies; * Space, Earth sciences, sustainable use of natural resources; and * Basic research promoting essential applied research. The Law on the National Academy of Sciences was adopted in May 2011. This law is expected to play a key role in shaping the Armenian innovation system. It allows the National Academy of Sciences to extend its business activities to the commercialization of research results and the creation of spin-offs; it also makes provision for restructuring the National Academy of Sciences by combining institutes involved in closely related research areas into a single body. Three of these new centres are particularly relevant: the Centre for Biotechnology, the Centre for Zoology and Hydro-ecology and the Centre for Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry.<ref name=":0" /> The government is focusing its support on selected industrial sectors. More than 20 projects have been cofunded by the State Committee of Science in targeted branches: pharmaceuticals, medicine and biotechnology, agricultural mechanization and machine building, electronics, engineering, chemistry and, in particular, the sphere of information technology.<ref name=":0" /> Over the past decade, the government has made an effort to encourage science–industry linkages. The Armenian information technology sector has been particularly active: a number of public–private partnerships have been established between companies and universities, in order to give students marketable skills and generate innovative ideas at the interface of science and business. Examples are Synopsys Inc. and the Enterprise Incubator Foundation.<ref name=":0" /> Armenia was ranked 72nd in the [[Global Innovation Index]] in 2023, down from 64th in 2019.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=WIPO |title=Global Innovation Index 2023, 15th Edition |url=https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2023/index.html |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=www.wipo.int |doi=10.34667/tind.46596 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Global Innovation Index 2019|url=https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2019/index.html|access-date=2021-09-02|website=www.wipo.int|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-10-28|title=Global Innovation Index|url=https://knowledge.insead.edu/entrepreneurship-innovation/global-innovation-index-2930|access-date=2021-09-02|website=INSEAD Knowledge|language=en|archive-date=2 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902101622/https://knowledge.insead.edu/entrepreneurship-innovation/global-innovation-index-2930|url-status=dead}}</ref> ===Education=== [[File:Old building of Yerevan State University2.jpg|thumb|[[Yerevan State University]] building]] {{Main|Education in Armenia|List of universities in Armenia}} In medieval times, the [[University of Gladzor]] and [[Tatev Monastery#Tatev University|University of Tatev]] took an important role for Armenian education.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} A literacy rate of 100% was reported as early as 1960.<ref name="loc">Curtis, Glenn E. and Ronald G. Suny. "Education". [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/amtoc.html Armenia: A Country Study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912060405/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/amtoc.html |date=12 September 2009 }}. [[Library of Congress]] [[Federal Research Division]] (March 1994). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.''</ref> [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|In the communist era]], Armenian education followed the standard Soviet model of complete state control (from Moscow) of [[curriculum|curricula]] and teaching methods and close integration of education activities with other aspects of society, such as politics, culture, and the economy.<ref name="loc" /> In the 1988–89 school year, 301 students per 10,000 were in specialized secondary or higher education, a figure slightly lower than the Soviet average.<ref name="loc" /> In 1989, some 58% of Armenians over age fifteen had completed their secondary education, and 14% had a higher education.<ref name="loc" /> In the 1990–91 school year, the estimated 1,307 primary and secondary schools were attended by 608,800 students.<ref name="loc" /> Another seventy specialised secondary institutions had 45,900 students, and 68,400 students were enrolled in a total of ten postsecondary institutions that included universities.<ref name="loc" /> In addition, 35% of eligible children attended [[preschool education|preschools]].<ref name="loc" /> In 1992 Armenia's largest institution of higher learning, [[Yerevan State University]], had eighteen departments, including ones for social sciences, sciences, and law.<ref name="loc" /> Its faculty numbered about 1,300 teachers and its student population about 10,000 students.<ref name="loc" /> The [[National Polytechnic University of Armenia]] is operating since 1933.<ref name="loc" /> In the early 1990s, Armenia made substantial changes to the centralised and regimented Soviet system.<ref name=loc/> Because at least 98% of students in higher education were Armenian, curricula began to emphasise [[History of Armenia|Armenian history]] and culture.<ref name=loc/> [[Armenian language|Armenian]] became the dominant language of instruction, and many schools that had taught in Russian closed by the end of 1991.<ref name=loc/> Russian was still widely taught, however, as a second language.<ref name=loc/> In 2014, the National Program for Educational Excellence embarked on creating an internationally competitive and academically rigorous alternative educational program (the Araratian Baccalaureate) for Armenian schools and increasing the importance and status of the teacher's role in society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://araratbaccalaureate.am/en/about-us|title=About us|website=araratbaccalaureate.am|access-date=2 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180202130722/http://araratbaccalaureate.am/en/about-us|archive-date=2 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://foundation.ayb.am/frontend/images/ck/files/Armenia%20Araratian%20Baccalaureate%20Briefing.pdf|title=The Araratian Baccalaureate: A guide for universities|access-date=2 February 2018|archive-date=4 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004180225/https://foundation.ayb.am/frontend/images/ck/files/Armenia%20Araratian%20Baccalaureate%20Briefing.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The Ministry of Education and Science is responsible for regulation of the sector. Primary and secondary education in Armenia is free, and completion of secondary school is compulsory.<ref name="loc" /> Higher education in Armenia is harmonized with the [[Bologna Process|Bologna process]] and the [[European Higher Education Area]]. The [[Armenian National Academy of Sciences]] plays an important role in postgraduate education. Schooling takes 12 years in Armenia and breaks down into primary (4 years), middle (5 years) and high school (3 years). Schools engage a 10-grade mark system. The government also supports [[List of Armenian schools#Schools outside Armenia|Armenian schools outside of Armenia]]. Gross enrollment in [[tertiary education]] at 44% in 2015 surpassed peer countries of the South Caucasus but remained below the average for Europe and Central Asia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=school_enrollment&fdim_y=education_level:4&fdim_y=gross_net:1&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=region:ECS&idim=country:ARM:GEO:AZE&ifdim=region&tstart=888264000000&tend=1424721600000&dl=en&ind=false|title=Chart – World Development Indicators (Google Public Data Explorer)|website=www.google.com|access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref> However, public spending per student in tertiary education in GDP-ratio terms is one of the lowest for post-USSR countries (for which data was available).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=expenditure_per_student&fdim_y=education_level:4&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=region&idim=region:ECS&idim=country:ARM:RUS:LVA:AZE:BLR:EST:GEO:KAZ:KGZ:MDA:TJK:UKR&ifdim=region&tstart=888264000000&tend=1424721600000&dl=en&ind=false|title=Chart – World Development Indicators (Google Public Data Explorer)|website=www.google.com|access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref> {{clear left}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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