September 2012, the United Nations Secretary-General created a fiveyear Global Education First Initiative to improve and advance

education and
the value of it. This initiative has three priorities: put every child in school,
improve the quality of learning, and foster global citizenship (About the
Global Education First Initiative).

In this
image it shows the percentage of gross enrollment ration for both
boys and girls in Armenia from 1991 through 2009 from The World
Bank http://data.worldbank.org/topic/education?
end=2014&locations=AM&start=1991.
The education in Armenia started out fairly high in 1991, 102.469%
and has had increases and decreases in the enrollment ratio since. In 2007,
the ratio was at its highest it has ever been at 108.467%. Two years later, in
2009, it decreased to 102.449%, and has been mostly decreasing the years

after. The education in Armenia is different from many places, especially the
United States. First a child starts off in Pre-school education and this is
basically helping a child grow, understanding what they are capable of, and
teaching them how to communicate with others (Republic of Armenia). Next
they go through their secondary education, which is ten years long (Republic
of Armenia). Their secondary education consists of three levels starting with
elementary school which is grades first to third, the second level is basic
schools, grades fourth to eighth, and the last level is high school, grades
ninth to tenth (Republic of Armenia). After they have the option to go to a
higher education institute, also known as college, however this is not
required (Republic of Armenia). Colleges in Armenia also include three levels
of education, the first level is a four-year study at any University in Armenia
and that is mostly spending time in the general education classes in subjects
such as economics, history, philosophy, law, medicine, and many more
(Republic of Armenia). The second level is one to two years of school but
usually takes a couple of years to complete, and this is where students
receives their Masters in their chosen major (Republic of Armenia). The last
level is another two years and in this level students earn their Candidate of
Science degree (Republic of Armenia). After their secondary education, if
students do not want to go to a college and receive any of these degrees
they have the option to go to a specialized or technical secondary education
to receive an appropriate qualification, such as a technician, junior engineer,
etc., however more students are starting to attend colleges and universities

than they were five to ten years ago but when compared to the United
States, they still need to work on enforcing more students to attend college
(Republic of Armenia). The major problems Armenia is having with
enrollment and why it is decreasing significantly is because students are only
required to go to school for at most ten years of their lives, usually six to 16
years old, and do not have to complete any other education beyond.

This data compares Armenia and the United States. It is the amount
of students after high school who attend post-secondary education
and after reading this data, the United States the enrollment for
tertiary education is over 86% where Armenia is just over 44%.
http://data.worldbank.org/topic/education?
end=2014&locations=AM-US&start=2000
Because of the lack of money in Armenia, their quality of education is
not one of the best. In 2009, the Government was spending 3.84% of the
GDP on education, then in 2014 that amount went down to 2.24% (World
Bank). With the government not having enough money to pay for the

education this has brought the quality of it down significantly. Since they
have such low quality, students education is almost being robbed from
them. The main question is what can the state do to help improve the quality
of education in Armenia? I feel that one of the main reasons why the
education has such poor quality is because not enough students attend
school. As mentioned before, students are only required to go to school for at
most ten years between the ages six to 16 and this is not including preschool education. However, what is amazing is that according to world atlas
Armenia is number 20 for one of the best literacy rates at 99.7% (25
Countries with The Highest Literacy Rates).
Lastly, Armenia is fairly good at fostering global civilization. Many of
students who decide to go through a higher education beyond their
secondary education study in different countries such as Canada, The United
States, and countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia (Republic of
Armenia). What is also interesting is that Armenia offers several scholarships
to students all over the globe to study there and learn more about their
culture, even colleges such as Arizona State University, University of
Pittsburgh, and the University of Georgia offer several scholarships to study
in Armenia (Armenian Education Scholarships).
Overall, Armenia has some issues when it comes to more students
attending school, especially beyond their secondary education, and
improving the quality of education. They must enforce more students to

attend school and must figure out a way to spend more money on education
to bring in more and better teachers and enhance the quality.

References
About the Global Education First Initiative (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 7, 2016, from
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/about/
Armenia Education Scholarships (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 7, 2016, from
http://www.collegescholarships.org/scholarships/country/armenia.htm
Republic of Armenia (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 7, 2016, from http://www.bibl.uszeged.hu/oseas/armedu.html
World Bank (n.d.). Retrieved Nov. 7, 2016, from
http://data.worldbank.org/topic/education?
end=2014&locations=AM&start=2000
25 Countries with The Highest Literacy Rates (2016). Retrieved Nov. 7, 2016,
from http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-highest-literacy-rates-inthe-world.html