The Head of Tatev community, Samvel Lalayan, met with Shane Quinn, the head of the “DeaLoG” program at SALAR International, Varsenik Mnatsakanyan, the Senior Program Manager for the program in Armenia, and communication expert Smbat Ghahramanyan. The meeting was also attended by the community's staff secretary, Mari Tevosyan.
The progress of the “Support for Decentralization and Local Self-Government Reforms in Armenia” (DeaLoG) program was discussed, particularly the work being done on decentralizing education and issues related to Tatev community’s involvement in this process.
The community head raised several issues related to education, some of which have been addressed by the state, while others still lack appropriate solutions. According to Samvel Lalayan, the decentralization of education should lead to communities taking over the management of schools, and the government should allocate financial resources to organize this and other related processes.
Shane Quinn, the program manager, thanked the community for the meeting and advocated for Tatev community’s active participation in the school-community collaboration model, emphasizing that in the future, the Swedish organization is ready to discuss other areas and mechanisms of support for the community. The program manager also presented the experience of Swedish communities in the education sector, expressing hope that the education system in Armenia will become competitive, high-quality, and free from political influence in the future.
According to the community's staff secretary, Mari Tevosyan, schools lack sufficient capacity and interest to continue working on the program. She links this issue to the state's policies, particularly the influence of territorial management bodies or administrative challenges.
At the end of the meeting, Varsenik Mnatsakanyan, the Senior Program Manager in Armenia, invited the community head to the municipal forum in February, informing him that the second community forum would focus on the key issues of decentralizing the education sector.
The “Support for Decentralization and Local Self-Government Reforms in Armenia” (DeaLoG) program is funded by the Swedish government and aims to assist the Armenian government in advancing decentralization and implementing local government reforms by providing advisory, analytical, and capacity-building support.