National Assembly Rejects Proposal to Multiply Student Scholarships

In today’s vote, the National Assembly rejected the proposal put forth by Prosperous Armenia Party MP Vahe Enfiajyan, which aimed to increase student scholarships from 5,000 and 6,000 drams to 20,000 and 30,000 drams respectively.

One of the reasons for the rejection by the ruling majority was the concern that such a significant increase in scholarships would shift the cost to the state budget from 1.9 billion drams to approximately 10 billion drams. Another argument presented was that if the state is already covering tuition fees for top-performing and high-achieving students, then raising scholarships would provide double incentives, which is seen as inefficient.

MP Artak Manukyan from the My Step bloc proposed an alternative approach, suggesting that instead of providing cash scholarships, students could receive memberships to museums or sports clubs to encourage their education.

Ultimately, this proposal faced a substantial number of opposing votes and was removed from the National Assembly’s agenda without being discussed.