The Tinusaur Foundation team visited the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, and met with leaders of one of the country’s largest organizations focused on education. It turned out that we have quite similar views in some areas, and we can learn a lot from our colleagues in Armenia.
We were very impressed by the business association UATE (Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises), established in 2000, whose team managed to create STEM spaces in more than 600 Armenian schools in just a few years with the exceptional support of private businesses.
Such a STEM space also exists in the 131 “Peyo Yavorov” school, which we visited and were greeted extremely warmly by the director Naira Zakaryan and her team. The students presented us with projects developed by them.
We also visited the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia and had a discussion with the minister’s team working in the STEM field, and more particular on the implementation of new products and technologies in Armenian schools.
Perhaps we were most impressed by our visit to the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies. It is a one-of-a-kind free education program for teenagers aged 12 to 18, specializing in technology and design, with training provided at centers in Yerevan and other cities. TUMO centers have also been established outside Armenia: in Paris, Beirut, Moscow, Tirana, Berlin, Lyon, Zurich, and Kyiv.
Our ideas and future goals overlapped to the greatest extent with the visions of Shamam Gevorgyan and Avag Sayan, who are the founders of the Antrohoos Foundation. The mission of their organization is the development of educational resources, their application in education, and placing Armenia among the leading countries exporting innovative educational products and services.