YEREVAN, OCTOBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. 1332 state secondary schools function in Armenia at present. 12 of them are elementary ones, 151 are main, 1169 are secondary and 16 ones are vocational schools. The total number of pupils makes 477.301. Compared with 1991, the number of pupils (583.797 pupils) reduced 18.2%. Bagrat Yesayan, the RA Deputy Minister of Education and Science informed about it at the "Quality of Education and Conformity" credit program middle term estimation conference taken place on October 11. The Deputy Minister mentioned that besides state schools, 41 non-state schools function as well, where 6541 pupils study. 42 thousand 719 pedagogues work at present in schools of Armenia. Their number started reducing from 2002 in the consequence of reductions implemented by the optimalization program, but in 2006 their number again increased in the system, on the account of the new educational system and newly introduced subjects. Bagrat Yesayan said that 78 bln 100 mln drams (about 205.5 mln dollars) were allocated to the education system by the 2006 state budget. 79.68% of the money was given to the system of comprehensive education. In the Deputy Minister's words, the money given to the 2007 education system from the budget will grow 14%, reaching 86 bln 700 mln drams (about 228 mln dollars).

---