1st of September – a different one
New reality dictates new lifestyle in all spheres. Educational processes have already undergone the newly dictated way of implementation. This September 1st was definitely an unusual one for the freshmen. Years later they will talk about this experience and it may seem even impressive then. On the 1st day of September, State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia like the rest of HEIs in Armenia opened its doors only for first-year students. Others will restart their studies beginning from September 15. The entrance for freshmen was organized according to their specialties; their names were read aloud, they passed temperature measurement, besides they were wearing masks.
“We welcome our freshmen and based on the situation, surely apologize to all of them for breaking the tradition this time. We usually gathered at our hall introducing the general structure of our institution, events, top management. This will be a new trial period also for us to get adapted to a new working mode. We will try to find effective ways to keep the course as fluent as possible”, told the rector, Aram Isabekyan in our conversation.
Currently, a special procedure and schedule for organizing the educational process was developed for the departments of two faculties; faculty of Fine Arts and faculty of Design and Decorative Applied Arts, approved by the rector. All the specialty subjects will be conducted in a full-time mode, the humanities and social science subjects will be held in a hybrid mode according to the specifics of the subject. The subjects of Armenian Language and Literature, History of Armenia will also be conducted in a hybrid mode. The subjects of History and Theory of Fine Arts will be full-time with a set limited number of students in each group. A significant part of the academic education will be held in laboratories; the classes there will be organized for small groups and will be held in turns. All the sanitary-hygiene norms are kept inside the university building in compliance with the rules of pandemic, using disinfection tools, materials, means.
Melanya Badalyan
Translated by Naira Stepanyan
