Providing access to education is key for each Armenian household. Although public schools are free of charge, schools located outside of Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan typically lack both teachers and well-equipped classrooms. This means that many schools are without the proper resources needed to provide a high educational standard and equal access to education for students.

Teach for Armenia, a member of the Teach for All global network, aims to combat this deeply engrained issue by providing equal educational opportunity to all children in Armenia through the recruitment and training of exceptional individuals to teach in schools located in underprivileged communities for a minimum of two years.

In the three years since Teach for Armenia was founded, many fellows - teachers of geography, biology, physics, chemistry, and English language - have filled these vacancies, and thus brought higher-quality education to these regions of Armenia, where they have helped children to grow and fulfill their curiosity toward these subjects.

Lusine Vardumyan teaches at Getashen Village School in the Armavir Region. The village is located 70 km away from Yerevan, close to Turkish border. Many families have migrated from the village, which has squeezed the current population down to 1,900 from its previous 2,704. However, for a small village, the school has a comparatively large number of students - 248 in total, 98 of whom have regular classes in physics and chemistry. Since the school does not have any actual science labs, only theory can be taught in class. This impacts the level of interest toward these subjects, and results in a very low number of students who actually want to pursue science education and eventual careers in science. Lusine had the idea of building a physics and chemistry lab at the Getashen school so that students could have the opportunity to study the subjects through hands-on experimentation.

Venera Abovyan is another Teach for Armenia fellow who teaches biology and chemistry at Shamiram Village School in Aragatsotn Province. The population of Shamiram Village is 2,144, out of which 91 are school-aged children (7-17 years old). For years, children in the school didn’t have biology and chemistry classes because there was no one to teach them. Then Venera arrived. “It’s very difficult for children to learn these two completely new courses in theory without having a lab where they can see everything in practice and do experiments” said Venera, who believes a science lab could be a significant investment for the betterment of the school’s students.

Ayo! has decided to collaborate with Lusine and Venera to help them achieve their shared goal. By installing science labs in these two schools, Ayo! will be able to contribute to providing higher-quality education for kids. The labs will ultimately help to boost the resources of two schools, and also spark the curiosity of the children who are eager to learn. As a result, many might even be more likely to pursue science as a career, and ultimately join a field that is essential for innovation and Armenia’s economic development.