Thursday, 21 May 2026
The Government makes changes to the State Standard of General Education
Today, the regular Cabinet meeting was held, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Mher Grigoryan.
By the decision of the Government, based on the received recommendations, the State Standard of General Education has been edited, making it more clearly regulated and providing greater flexibility to general education schools in the planning and implementation of the educational process. According to the substantiation, the key principles of the standard have remained largely unchanged, namely the educational areas and the requirements for the content of their programs, the components of the content of the programs: 1) knowledge, 2) skills, 3) attitude, 4) value, as well as the description of the expected learning outcomes and requirements for students. One section of the changes concerns the regulations for the development of the curriculum by the school. In particular, changes have been made to the limits of components allocated to each educational field at each educational level. Another direction of changes concerns the regulations for organizing education in high school with basic and targeted programs. The proposed changes provide an opportunity for high school students to study subjects outside their professional orientation within the framework of integrated subjects with basic programs, and to study their preferred subjects with targeted programs, deepening their knowledge, abilities and skills and preparing for university entrance exams. Taking into account the importance of mastering foreign languages, it has been determined that 2 foreign languages are planned to be studied in all grades of high school.
The Government approved the bill of the Republic of Armenia “On Amendments and Supplements to the Labor Code of the Republic of Armenia”, which envisages defining the term “parental time”. The amendments are aimed at increasing the social protection of employees and the efficiency of work. Children under the age of twelve, as well as children under the age of eighteen with profound or severe disability, require more active and continuous care, attention and involvement of their parents. The inclusion of parental time in working hours and the preservation of salary during it guarantees that the employee will not suffer financial loss due to the fulfillment of his parental duties, which corresponds to the principles of the social state and the fundamental guarantees of the right to work.
The Government adopted a decision aimed at improving the cattle breeding development program in the Republic of Armenia for 2025-2029, create more favorable conditions for beneficiaries, and increase the interest of beneficiaries. It is planned to set the maximum estimated cost of 1 head of pedigree cattle purchased within the framework of the program at 1.1 million drams, and to compensate economic operators using the compensation component with 50% of the estimated maximum cost of each head or the actual amount paid (excluding transportation costs). For economic operators using the loan interest rate subsidy component, the grace period for the principal amount will be set at 18 months, and the loan interest rate subsidy will be implemented at 100%, so that loans are provided to the beneficiary at 0% interest rate.
Due to the need to modernize the tools of the targeted productivity promotion program and increase its effectiveness, the Government has adopted a decision. The purpose of the decision is to increase the targeting of state support, ensure the promotion of competition in the financial market, as well as the effective redistribution of the program's financial resources without a significant increase in the expenditure burden of the state budget. In particular, it is proposed to establish the right of economic operators to transfer subsidized loan/leasing contracts from one financial organization to another, while maintaining state support. Favorable subsidy conditions have been established for the construction and reconstruction of hotel facilities in the regions of the Republic of Armenia (except Yerevan), contributing to the development of tourism. Financing for the acquisition of systems intended for electricity production at solar power plants has been removed from the list of target activities of the program for newly subsidized contracts. The program includes the types of economic activities "Waste processing and destruction, material recovery", promoting the introduction of circular economy models.
