The Debate Club today hosted the teams of the Faculties of Philology and Culture who debated on the theme of free and paid education, singling out the advantages and
disadvantages of each system.
According to the format of the debate, the team of the Philological Faculty presented their viewpoints and arguments on the subject matter, stressing that paid and free systems first of all create grounds for healthy competition.
The opposing team disagreed with them saying that a limited number of students will be admitted to universities once we switch to the free system: nowadays mainly boys study in the free education system in order to avoid military service.
The future pedagogues also referred to the financial problems of universities and said that lecturers will be paid less in case education becomes free of charge.
.jpg)
With the help of crosscutting questions each team presented their definite stance on the topic and viewpoints and defended their positions by submitting arguments.
The team of the Culture Faculty reminded the effectiveness of free education in the previous social system and cited numerous examples when a student had dropped out of the university because of the poor social conditions. Vanuhi Bahramyan, a representative of the Philological Faculty, hurried to interrupt the speaker, considering it absurd to compare the USSR with present-day Armenia. “It is not excluded that after studying at the university for free a person may not work by profession as he prefers a well-paid job.”
The debate was conducted by Shoghik Sahakyan, who is in charge of SSS Debates Committee. A panel of judges was formed to determine the winning team.
It included Lianna Chobanyan, founding head of the Debate Club of the Faculty of Primary Education, Khachik Sargsyan,
lecturer of the Chair of Socio-Economic Geography and Geography Teaching Methods, Associate Professor, Gohar Mkoyan, lecturer of Sociology and Social Work and Mariam Melkumyan, President of the SSS.
Before summarizing the results, Khachik Sargsyan reminded of the difficulties encountered by applicants in Soviet years, when 30 entrants were competing for one seat.
He thinks that the state is obliged to settle the issue of education like daily bread, providing an opportunity for applying the acquired knowledge in one’s homeland.
Lianna Chobanyan referred to the shortcomings she noticed during the debate, which concerned the contents of questions, arguments and insufficient evidence.
In the end, the Faculty of Philology was named the winner of the debate.
