August 17, 2020 - 17:25 AMT
ADB OKs $750K grant project to support distance learning in Armenia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a grant-financed $750,000 Knowledge and Support Technical Assistance project to help Armenia improve resilience to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and other disasters by developing and operationalizing a distance education platform, ADB said in a statement on Monday, August 17.

The project will support the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport (MoESCS) to ensure quality and continuous education during times of emergency and normal situations. The assistance will improve the regulatory and institutional framework supporting distance learning, as well as the capacity of users through a training of trainers scheme for effective operation of the distance education platform.

Under the program, a distance education platform will be developed to provide more learning modalities and information in a learner-friendly format. The platform will support kindergarten through grade 12 education institutions to deliver online courses and provide teachers and students with real-time feedback mechanisms, assignment distribution and monitoring, and other student-centric learning tools.

The coronavirus outbreak prompted Armenian authorities to adapt the educational system to the situation and transition to distance learning. Schools across the country, however, are set to open on September 15.