Minster of Education and Science of Armenia on the right of deferment
“Imagine there are 20 young men in a faculty. 16 of them have been conscripted, 4 remain, as there is a 0.5 point difference in the exams. I guess, besides all other problems, there’s the principle of justice. We should also be able to fundamentally solve the education quality problem,” Minister of Education and Science, Levon Mkrtchyan commented on the right of deferment during a press conference.
According to the Minister, one of the options is to conscript the students after finishing the first year.
“The absolute majority of the students are now being called up. This principle has already been applied. Therefore, if the problem is solved on the BA level, it will also be solved on MA and PhD levels.We would have a system, which will allow the Ministry of Education and Science to solve another problem concerning free tuition directly connected with the right of deferment. If we could manage to separate the three systems of admission exams, free tuition and deferment, we would add a social component to the free tuition. This can become a basis for serious educational reforms,” Levon Mkrtchyan said.
Concerning the question of whether it would do harm to science abolishing the right of deferment, the Minister said that there are also branches of science where, scientists have to keep up with the pace to provide quality.
“The students should be able to get knowledge in their professional sphere in the army,” the Minister said.