Armenia expands AI courses in schools

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is successfully piloting artificial intelligence courses in schools and has launched a joint initiative with Firebird and OpenAI, Education, Science, Culture and Sports Minister Zhanna Andreasyan said during a government meeting.

“For the third consecutive year, together with our private-sector partners, we have been successfully testing AI courses in our schools. Starting in September, our cooperation with the FAST Foundation will expand to include more than 40 high schools. I should note that the program has already achieved considerable success. Students who complete our course are performing successfully in international AI Olympiads, and we already have medal-winning students,” she said, according to 1lurer.am.

The program received an award at an international competition held in the United States as an example of educational innovation and a successful educational AI program.

“In this sense, Armenia’s experience in teaching a separate AI course is currently considered educational and successful. We are also actively presenting the program on international platforms. But the second and more important issue, in my opinion, is AI literacy as universal literacy.

This is a skill needed both by our students and by our employees, including teachers and administrative staff. We are also working in this direction. We now have a joint initiative, which we hope to launch in September. Here too, we are working together with Firebird and OpenAI, and this should allow us to move forward in AI literacy, helping teachers gain tools and use them, while also properly informing our students,” Andreasyan said.

Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan stated that the role and adaptation of AI in state universities should also be discussed.

“These are complex issues without clear-cut solutions, and no solution can be considered 100 percent complete. But we definitely need to talk more about it, study it more and try to find different methods for addressing the issue. Our universities are part of this discussion, and the expected cooperation with Firebird and OpenAI also concerns universities. I believe there is a need for serious reform in higher education, and this need exists not only in Armenia. We must be able to keep pace with these developments,” Andreasyan noted.

Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatryan emphasized the need to expand the pilot AI program in schools.

Andreasyan added: “What is important in the logic of expansion is maintaining quality standards. A great deal of work is being done here, including with the teachers who will teach these courses. Those teachers undergo extensive training followed by mentoring support. Of course, we want to move faster, but we also want quality results. If we see that any school can realistically join this list, we have no restrictions on working with them. I should also say that this initiative is generating considerable enthusiasm among students to continue their education in upper grades. Naturally, we will work more intensively in this direction.”