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“This year, compared with last, shows the number of first grade students to be 3-4 thousand less. The number of graduating students comes to 45-50 thousand,” Narine Hovhannisyan, head of middle education in the Education Ministry, said today.

Starting this year, six-year-olds will attend school and will receive a 12-year education. As opposed to last year‘s two, only one first grade is planned, in accordance with the new school census.

“Last year’s experience shows we can conquer anything we face. If we look carefully, at the time when it wasn’t mandatory for six-year-olds to attend school, we find that there were parents who were bringing their children to school anyway,” Hovhannisyan said, for some unknown reason making this comparison.

The thing is that it is clear from talking with these parents that they did it merely to not get behind a year in school.

Hovhannisyan stressed that “If at that time the students could conquer a program meant for seven-year-olds, they will now be able to do anything they want, especially if the program they face is easier.”

As an “example,” she pointed out that “If a first-grader could learn the alphabet in three months last year, they should now be able to learn it by April.”

Yet, it would be more appropriate to say “forced” instead of “able” concerning learning the alphabet, and to forget that there are children who start school who already know how to read, and will be “forced and able” only to get tired and bored of it all. It is strange that such a primitive application is now being adopted by those in education.