“Media Advocate” initiative continues the series of interviews with the press secretaries and heads of the state agencies. This time our interlocutor is the Deputy Head of Public Relations and Information Department of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, Ofelya Kamavosyan.
1․From education standards to protests of entrants who haven’t been admitted to universities. Recently, ESCS is the most discussed and criticized ministry. Apparently, you worked in unusual conditions. Would you please tell about the working process these days, how the day started, how you coordinated the work with the journalists, how many calls and inquiries were received at most?
1.On the busiest days, more than 50 calls received from the media representatives are quite normal, plus the entrants, their parents and the representatives of different beneficiary groups. Of course, we answer the journalists’ questions first, realizing the urgency of the case. After all, if they call at ten o’clock at night, then they are posting news on the website or the editor has asked to check any fact. If we are not asleep, then we are working with our team consisting of ten members: it can not be other way, as the minister, the five deputies, the heads of subdivisions also work at that pace. This is very motivating and obliges to do more.
I find important to post and share fast and accurate news on website, to always satisfy the FB audience with interesting information. For example, in the days of government sittings, FB users and some journalists quickly report based on a single sentence uttered or on a draft decision. We have a different way of working, we write and disseminate comprehensive, accurate, verified and invulnerable information that is used by everyone, that even months later when there is a need to remember something, they want the link of our official news. Sometimes we are accused of not immediately and constantly denying the falsification and misinformation, but lately we see so many false, directed steps that it turns out that we have to leave our main job and refute absurd assumptions all day long.
I would like to tell that working with journalists is only 30% of our work, there is a lot to be done in terms of raising awareness, it is a permanent, never-ending job. Our department has four landline numbers, in recent months two of them have been forwarded to our personal numbers, we patiently respond to e-mails and letters written to our FB page. We make informative videos, we have the “#Workbymyprofession” series, which promotes the right professional orientation, we do various actions for schoolchildren too. In the autumn, people will see the results of the work of the past year in the form of more than three TV products on the topic of financial literacy.
2Trust in any ministry largely depends on the activities of the press representative, it is important to be able to establish friendly relations with all media outlets. You are a journalist by profession, you have worked in the field for many years, you have been in contact with the press officers of different ministries, what kind of shortcomings have you noticed, which you exclude in your work?
2.You know, they say there is not such a phenomenon as former journalist, if I do not work in the ministry tomorrow, I will continue working in any media outlet. So, the issue of establishing relations did not arise in my case, I am one of them, everyone is my colleague, I know and respect everyone, I try to be equally useful to everyone, doing my job quickly and without mistakes. My 16 years of journalistic experience in the agency, newspaper, television news service and program helps me to quickly understand what problem the journalist solves, in what format, in what terms, etc.
First of all, I try to respond quickly, because I did not like when I applied for the interview and it was not organized tomorrow, but in a week, or some important questions were removed by mediation of press secretaries without informing the heads. I do not like informing the journalist about the “apply by writing” bot, there are just questions and topics to which it is simply impossible or not expedient to answer verbally. My working style is that the journalist should have the opportunity to give the questions touching upon professional topics to the responsible official personally, especially that question arises from a question.
3․How free is a journalist, press secretary or the one who responsible? How to be flexible, at the same time, not to lose your face, because the face and voice of the ministry is no one but the press responsible.
3.I am free, I do not know whether I am lucky or smart but I do not spread news against my conscience, I am not just a means to spread news, I deeply believe in the reforms and programs implemented by the ESCS Ministry today. I am grateful to the Minister, the Deputy Ministers, for not offering me to spread any false or fake news in the past year, it makes my job easier and is the strongest momentum to work with love.
4․Let’s go back to the standards of education, may we know your personal opinion to what extent the changes will contribute to the improvement of the education system. As a citizen, what problems have you seen, or see compared to your years of study, what are the good and bad changes? What would you change if you were a minister?
4.This is my favorite topic. My son is just going to school, my daughter is about to go. I am interested in this issue in all respects. I made a decision to take them to a public school so that I could feel everything by myself. I would like to see a lot changed at school, starting with the way of greeting: it would be good that they do not shout all together, but greet the pedagogue, the principal and the guests individually and freely. I would not like to take children to Oshakan in the first grade and to look ways to explain to a 7-year-old child what a tomb is, but to visit that place after graduation, instead of holding lavish and tasteless events, so as they can realize and appreciate the importance of the invention of letters. The first graders can visit the Լetter park and Matenadaran with their parents. I have a great desire to see a maximum of 20 children in the classrooms…
The greatest goal of the reforms is that all our children go to school with love, that they love, respect and perceive their teachers as senior friends. Another important circumstance is that citizens who are compassionate for the homeland, are brought up; citizens who save nature, who are respectful especially towards women and elder people, who stand in a straight line, who follow the rules in traffic, and in general. I mainly use public transport and I insist that personal hygiene lessons are also necessary. Besides, when citizens see any corruption case, they should have the courage to prevent or warn, they should be tolerant of those different; this series is to be continued …
In 1998, I graduated from one of the best schools in Armenia, Nersisyan College, which in those years offered a multi-layered educational program: we learned chess, calligraphy, Turkish. Of course, in those years we did not study “History of the Armenian Church”, but like my peers, I carry Christian values, I do not consider myself less patriotic.
By the example of my children, I have realized that the time to explain a lesson on the chalkboard is over, this generation, which surpasses us several times, perceives everything differently; more practical, empirical methods will work. Learning by heart is no longer necessary, everything can be found by googleing. The path of today’s student is to go deep into the content of everything. It will be difficult to pass this path with teachers with a cliché way of thinking, who have become pedagogues because it’s convenient but not due to their unconditional love of children. It is a difficult task to show the light of science to the student of the tablet generation, as soon as they see that light, I have no doubt that the content will eventually outweigh the form.
There are several key topics in the new education standards:
– The exact science-mathematical direction is being strengthened, the positive effect of this will be vivid in the near future.
– Arts and crafts will be taught until the 12th grade. The generation brought up with high-value works will one day refuse to watch soap operas.
– The new subject “My homeland and me” will become the favorite subject for the children. Let me just mention one episode: for the first time, the topics discussed in the epic “David of Sassoun” will be addressed quite seriously, for example, equality between men and women, mutual respect.
5. Is that possible that you are appointed as ESCS press secretary, why is that position still vacant?
5.The position of the Minister’s press secretary is still vacant, as it is a discretionary position, the minister decides who will work and for how long. Regardless of everything, our multi-profile team has solved the tasks set before and will solve in a best way possible, trying to work in a way that the journalists’ questions do not remain unanswered, and so as people are informed.
