Preschool teachers in Armenia will be able to receive additional payments after retraining

YEREVAN, April 4. /ARKA/. Preschool teachers in Armenia are given the opportunity to receive bonuses after having a retraining course, Tehmine Karakhanyan, a chief specialist at the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, told a press conference on Tuesday.

Last year, the ministry introduced mandatory retraining of preschool teachers. After completing the course and meeting a number of criteria, the teacher will be entitled to additional payments. The amount will depend on the level of compliance with the criteria.

Karakhanyan noted that the retraining process is mandatory for all teachers every five years, but applying for a category and extra pay is voluntary.

"On average, teachers receive now 70-100 thousand drams a month. If they get the first category, the extra payment will be 30 thousand drams. Regardless of the level of salary of a teacher, the amount of extra payment is calculated based on the minimum wage (30%, 40%, 50%)," she said.

According to Karakhanyan, there are around 7,500 pre-school teachers in the country. Every year, 20% of them undergo mandatory retraining.

"Last year, 1,041 teachers were retrained and we expect that 20-30% of them will apply for the category," she noted.

She pointed out that the procedure for granting categories was approved March 2, 2023, but teachers have not yet applied. -0-