Students Convinced Their Alternative Deferment Proposal ‘Realizable and Benefits State’

Armenia’s defense and education ministries have welcomed the military deferment options put forward by students; however, there’s still no clear indication that the proposals will be approved by the authorities, Hayk Zakaryan, a member of the For the Development of Science students group, said in conversation with Epress.am.

“We have had three meetings thus far with [defense deputy minister] Artak Zakaryan, [education minister] Levon Mkrtchyan and [defense minister] Vigen Sargsyan]. They have all welcomed the deferment options that we suggested, but there are still no agreement on either making them official or implementing them,” Zakaryan said.

“We have proposed to introduce a new set of standards making it possible to track the students’ progress and see whether they are eligible for a deferment. For example, if a student manages to score 70-80 points out of a total of 100, then he will be considered successful and promising, and the government will therefore grant him a deferment. This standards will help to root out mediocre students and those who only go to universities to avoid military service.”

Zakaryan is convinced that the plan is realizable since “it also benefits the state.” “The authorities have told us to submit the proposal in a written form, so we are now working on a statement and will issue it in the nearest future.”