ARMENIAN TEACHERS IN IRAN HAVE
INTENSIVE RETRAINING COURSES
NOR GYANK: No. 13, MARCH 13, 2003

TEHRAN - Around fifty teachers of Armenian schools in Iran joined from last January 9 to February 28 in the capital Tehran for a month-long retraining course, conducted under an agreement that was sealed by the education department of the Armenian Diocese in Tehran, Armenian's education ministry and a Yerevan-based Spyurk (Diaspora) research study.

Armenian experts, who conducted the course, also visited 27 Armenian schools in Tehran to attend classes, which were then followed by thorough analyses. Teachers of Armenian in Tehran are mainly women without special higher education, only ten have higher education. The picture is better in the northern-western town of Julfa, home to a big Armenian community, where the local University has Armenian studies department, issuing teachers for six local Armenian schools.

The Armenian-called schools are actually schools in which the majority of subjects are taught in Farsi, providing also an extensive course in the Armenian language and history. After many meetings with leaders of local Armenian communities Armenian experts have undertaken to design and publish special text-books of Armenian foe Iranian-Armenian pupils.

Armenians have lived in Iran as a religious minority for the last 17 centuries. During this period, they have managed to preserve their language, and their religion. Armenians came in mass to Iran during the reign of Safavid King, Shah Abbas, who moved 300,000 of them from the Western and Eastern Armenia to Iran in early 17th century for political and economic reasons. They were housed in the Julfa area, which lies outside the city of Isfahan, and in the Gilan province. They later scattered throughout the Isfahan province and then into the Tehran Mazandaran, and Gilan provinces as well as Urumiyeh, the center of Western Azerbaijan.

The Armenian community is said now to be estimated at around 200,000. After the revolution of 1978, forty thousand Armenians are said to have migrated abroad, particularly to the ex-Soviet Republic of Armenia.

Armenians have nearly 40 schools, including eight high schools, the administration of which is supervised by the Education Ministry. Armenians also have their representatives in the parliament.