Azernews.Az

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Young teachers in Armenia are massively leaving their jobs at the higher education schools due to high mandatory pension taxes.

The Mandatory Funded Pension System re-approved in June, 2014 commits all Armenian citizens born after 1973 to pay mandatory social security taxes.

The problem has posed a real threat to the country's education system as young specialists intend to leave the field completely.

Tigran Petrosyan, a teacher at the State Architecture University said the staff at Armenian universities are consisted mostly of aged teachers.

"The new pension reform discourages the young teachers to apply for jobs at higher education facilities," he stressed.

The Funded Pension System aims to reform pension policy and help individuals, households, and communities better manage social risks including old age, survivors, and disability.The project has promised to provide adequate income for Armenia's elderly population in a fiscally sound and sustainable environment.

The new pension system, which came into force in January, requires anyone in employment aged 40 and under to make pension contributions calculated at five per cent of monthly earnings under 500,000 drams (1,200 US dollars) and ten per cent of wages exceeding that amount.

Problems of concern

Low number of applicants was another challenge for the Armenian education in 2014. The number of applicants to the Yerevan State University of Languages has considerably decreased in this academic year.

"The reason is the low number of applicants throughout the country," Rector of Yerevan State University of Languages and Social Sciences Gayane Gasparyan said on Sept. 14.

International Sociological Association (ISA) said another major educational problem in Armenia was the failure of system to update old courses, implement new ones or introduce contemporary teaching techniques. Furthermore, low salaries have discouraged young professionals with MAs or PhDs from Western universities to be part of country's education system.

UNICEF data showed low public expenditure on education, as well as the inability of communities to maintain schools with their poor budgets deteriorated school facilities to decrease the quality of formal education in Armenia. Vast majority of the pre-school age children can not attend pre-school courses because of the poverty and lack of the mentioned facilities.

Tour Armenia online media outlet reports that although education is guaranteed for all citizens free of charge in the country, it has obviously become a private system. Lack of funding and support from the government and outside sources severely threatened the education system in Armenia. For instance, shutdown of the kindergartens in the country, which are essential to the education process, has created a private system, which puts families in trouble to raise their money instead of their kids.

Education in Armenia has always been criticized due to the long-lasting problems it has been suffering from. Almost everyone in the country knows the influence of the bribery on the education. They say it fractured the backbone of education to hinder its development.

In Armenia, a common phrase to mask the bribing is "lavoutyoun" (an act of kindness) or "magharic" (a tip). Greater number of students in Armenia are "stress-free" as they get their mark in return of "a tip".