New format of Eurasian educational space

 

Author: VK

 

Speaking of the formation of the Eurasian Union, experts appreciate humanitarian component, including joint educational projects. This issue is of particular relevance in the light of the possibility of joining the Eurasian integration project of Armenia, where some experts doubt the feasibility of such integration in terms of politics and economy.

 

“Regarding Russian-Armenian economic cooperation, which involves fairly high-tech industries, such as, say, nuclear construction, mining, information technology, medical technology - at the moment there is a great number of projects, all of which of course require an adequate educational basis”, Andrei Areshev, research fellow at the Institute of Political and Social Studies of the Black Sea-Caspian region, says. “To be honest, a lot has been destroyed in the last 20 years. The Western educational programs and cooperation models still have their peculiarities, which in some cases do not match the cultural, economic and political realities that exist in our countries. The role of the Russian language is very important, as well as direct links between universities, research centers and educational structures that form from below, and are not imposed from above, and, certainly, have good chances of being successfully and effectively implemented. This co-operation should not be opportunistic in nature, and should not be linked to any events, and should be more systematic and advanced... The spiritual sphere is always a little and sometimes even rather significantly behind the economic, financial and technical sphere. The objectives of common educational reforms in the former Soviet Union, among other tasks, in my opinion, have to first of all aim at developing certain spiritual civilizational common landmarks that would help our countries of Russia and Armenia, the countries of Central Asia, for which it is all very relevant, confront all the challenges. For partners in the Eurasian space it has always been some kind of an alternative West, which offered different cooperation principles, principles which allowed our peoples to exist for centuries in relative security, international peace, harmony etc.”

 

“Creating a single economic space seems to be comparatively easier than creating a common cultural and spiritual space”, Manuk Mkrtchyan, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia, says. “The problem is that economic integration always comes first. But cultural and spiritual integration should always be ahead of economic integration, otherwise there will be a very, very big problem. Different projects of cooperation in education are aimed precisely at strengthening this component - the component of the spiritual and cultural cooperation, to make it come first and not last. One should never let concepts in the cultural and spiritual reality obey already-established integration situations in the sphere of the economy or other areas”.

 

“It is a reproach to all of us - to the Armenians as well as Russians - that we cannot create a reality in which cultural and humanitarian cooperation is developing faster than economic cooperation”, Ashot Dzhazojan, chairman of the Media Congress of Journalists of Europe and Asia, the head of the master's degree program of the CIS and Baltic Countries at the Department of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University, says. “In my opinion, it's our fault, because our people have been proving their relationship to each other on the metaphysical level for many centuries. We have very many things in common and very little that separates us… The Eurasian space will be formed in the first place when ordinary people start to support the space. The Soviet Union was kept together not only with the help of propaganda. Do you remember how at the 24th Congress Brezhnev declared: "A new community has been born - the Soviet people." This, perhaps, was partially filled with ideology, but there was also some kind of truth in it. If we want to create a Eurasian space, we need to make sure that the people are interested in it, so that it does not become loosely speaking a decision of the Cabinet”. 

 

“Education today plays a fundamental integrating role, and in practice it creates a new modern economy, an economy of knowledge”, Parkev Avetisyan, provost of the Russian-Armenian (Slavic) University, says. “Education is not just a matter of the social sphere. Education today is part of international relations, it influences modern politics. It is really crucial for the post-Soviet space. But to what extent are we effectively using this unique tradition?  Our space too has also a number of effective postulates and principles. The principle, for example, of a fundamental education, a number of other characteristics that really characterize our post-Soviet countries.

 

The time has come to produce the Eurasian alternative educational space. The idea of a common educational space is not new, because really a lot has been done in terms of, say, a single educational space of the CIS countries, a lot of regulations, many principles have been established, butin terms of time I think that we are losing some momentum and now time is very expensive. In this regard, certainly, discussion about the new format of the Eurasian educational environment is very important and necessary. There are lots of problems related to the modernization of education in all our countries, and separate efforts of each country might not be enough. Here we need an integrative position. Maybe the idea of a common educational space in this sense plays a fundamental role”.