Interest in Russian Language Declining, We Will Soon Have a Shortage of Specialists: Andreasyan

Interest in the Russian language is declining, and there is a serious problem regarding the admission to Russian language studies overall. This was stated by Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan during the discussions of the Human Rights Defender's committee in the National Assembly.

She noted that the issue of a shortage of specialists may soon become significant among Russian language teachers. "We have the opportunity for subject specialists preparing at the Pedagogical University to take additional courses in Russian and be able to teach that language. These opportunities exist; students just need to have the desire. This is a reality that we must first recognize, and secondly, there are programs, but the decline in interest is evident," she said.

Regarding textbooks, Zhanna Andreasyan emphasized that only textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports can be used in schools. "If someone brings a textbook from somewhere, they cannot teach, and that is not right; it should not be like that. Textbooks must align with our standards in content and logic. I believe we have work to do in this area," noted Minister Zhanna Andreasyan.