YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The number of free educational places, in general, has increased by about 1000 this year for the purpose of giving the children from socially unprovided families an opportunity to receive a middle professional and initial professional education: this number in middle and initial professional educational instituitons makes, correspondingly, 2568 and 2565. This information was provided to a Noyan Tapan correspondent by Samvel Pipoyan, the Head of the Department on Craftsmanship and Medium Specialized Education of the RA Ministry of Education and Science. He mentioned that the number of entrants in middle and initial professional educational institutions is gradually decreasing year after year: it has decreased by about 3000 during the past seven years and made 7000 in 2006. According to him, the number of entrants in musical and art educational institutions, in particular, has decreased. There are also such institutions, where free places are still vacant. In the words of Samvel Pipoyan, there are a lot of entrants, who have chosen medical, economical, accounting professions. At present, 80 middle state, 25 non-state, and 27 state initial professional educational institutions operate in Armenia. Entrance examinations, which have started since the half of July, will continue until the end of August in these institutions.

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