Background Information 

Historically, the purpose and thus structure of the education systems have always walked along with the requirements of the specific historical phase they have been operating in. Before the Industrial Revolution, the demand for professionals was formed according to the demand of the government and there was a clear correlation between the supply, i.e. when, how many, and what type of professionals are being trained, and the demand, i.e. where, when and at what conditions they will be employed. As the technological revolution came forward, the gears have shifted amounting into a situation where there are many trained professionals who are unemployed on one hand, and an unsatisfied demand on the side of the labor market for emerging professions, such as AI engineers.

Technology has become the driver of the labor market development and the economy at large, as a core customer for the upcoming professions and the source for their demands. This will only accelerate in the future. This is also reaffirmed by many scientists through evidence that demonstrates that technology drives the education market both removing the need for some jobs and creating new ones.

Educational systems that the world currently exploits were created with purposes that serve a different era, thus global educational institutions currently struggle to adapt to the changed needs of the new world order. With the constantly evolving demands and reality of the technological era, educational systems of the future serve two core purposes, namely (a) equipping the majority of the population with competencies essential for being capable to live and thrive amid rapid technological developments, and (b) nurturing professionals who will be at the forefront of technological advancement.

Armenia is no exception to the above-mentioned trends and challenges. IT is currently the most rapidly and dynamically growing sector in the country with a two-digit growth indicator since 2011. And though the sector creates vast employment opportunities there is a constant lack of a high-skilled and quality workforce. This, along with the low level of national expenditure on education, illustrates the inability of the educational system to meet the key needs and dynamics that the  labor market has already today, showing no trends of being able to cope with the exponentially growing needs in tech professionals.

Furthermore, the creation of a knowledge economy is of even broader importance in the context of reducing the poverty rate in Armenia. The poverty rate in Armenia increased from 37.5% in 2015 to 43.8% in 2019[1]. Proportion of the population living below the National Poverty Line (NPL) was 26.4% in 2019. 33.2% of rural people of Armenia lived below NPL, while in urban areas this number was 22.2%[2]. Among the poor population in 2019 only 11.2% were people with higher education, while another 88.8% were people with secondary or even primary education. The urgency around reducing poverty level and building a knowledge economy further escalates with the increasing unemployment[3] and economic crisis in Armenia  triggered by COVID-19 and the 44-day war in The Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) that hit the country in 2020. Both of these challenging events have already led to unprecedented economic consequences for the country, including the crucial deepening of monetary and social poverty.

Education can become the crucial pathway to both (a) addressing these consequences given the findings of numerous studies conducted by UNESCO that demonstrate a strong correlation between the level of education in the country and the poverty rate, and (b) for transforming the country into one of the global epicenters that provide education of the future.

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... Session Description “Reimagining Education” discussion aims to create a platform for idea and expertise exchange about the future of education and what kind of education system should be structured so that Armenia develops a competitive society capable of meaningfully contributing and being at the forefront of technological and scientific progress. The discussion sessions will be held in the “open fishbowl model”. For each topic, 3 guest speakers will sit in a circle of chairs on stage — the bowl—and the audience will sit in concentric circles around them. The speakers will be asked to talk to each other by answering a series of directed questions by the moderator. One chair is left empty and audience members can rotate through, adding their take on the topic. The main topics to be addressed during the 3 discussion sessions are the following: Topic 1: The prospective purpose of education: What needs should the education address globally? Topic 2: Future of education: If we had the opportunity to build a new educational system from scratch to address the needs of the future, what should it be like? Topic 3: Armenia as a testbed for innovation in education: Does Armenia have a chance to shift the paradigm in education and become an export country in education innovation? [1] Using the updated poverty measurement methodology based on the ILCS 2019. [2] Specifically in Yerevan only 14.1% of population was poor, while in other urban areas this number was equal to 31.1% [3] Unemployment rate in Armenia increased from 10% in 2005 to 17% in 2019. References: - Derek O’Halloran, “How technology will change the way we work”, World Economic Forum, Aug 2015 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/08/how-technology-will-change-the-way-we-work/ - “Schools of the Future”, World Economic Forum, Jan 2020, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Schools_of_the_Future_Report_2019.pdf - “Competencies for the Knowledge Economy”, OECD 2001, https://www.oecd.org/innovation/research/1842070.pdf - “Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: Workforce Transitions in a Time of Automotation”, McKinsey Global Institute, Dec 2017, https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/public%20and%20social%20sector/our%20insights/what%20the%20future%20of%20work%20will%20mean%20for%20jobs%20skills%20and%20wages/mgi%20jobs%20lost-jobs%20gained_report_december%202017.pdf - “World Development Indicators”, The World Bank, https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators - Darrell West, “Future of Work: Robots, AI, and Automation”, 2018 - “Navigating the rising tide of uncertainty”, PwC, https://www.pwc.com/ee/et/publications/pub/pwc-23rd-global-ceo-survey.pdf - “National Competitiveness Report of Armenia 2019”, EV Consulting, https://evconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ACR2019-ENG-web.pdf