Technologies for the benefit of education

YEREVAN, 29 May 2026 – UNICEF joined the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and the Yerevan State University to launch a teachers’ conference today, entitled “The Role of Technological Innovations in Education,” with the support of the European Union in Armenia.

This annual conference aims to review the progress of ongoing comprehensive reforms in general education and to share innovations within the sector. Around 700 teachers from Yerevan and various regions participated in the conference and were greeted by Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Araksia Svajyan, Yerevan State University Rector Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, EU Delegation representative in Armenia Václav Štěrbán, and Acting UNICEF Representative in Armenia Silvia Mestroni.

Welcoming the participants, Deputy Minister Araksia Svajyan emphasized the importance of putting artificial intelligence to meaningful use in the educational process, as well as properly assessing and mitigating its risks. According to her, the new opportunities provided by technological innovations should be transformed into more effective ways of working with students.

“Technologies are developing at such a pace that we must keep up with the times. Our students belong to the generation of the technological era, receiving vast amounts of information every day through different channels. Academic education at school must be organized in a way that is engaging, appealing, and effective for students, taking into account the characteristics of today’s learners,” she emphasized.

“Since its very foundation, Yerevan State University (YSU) has been an important center of knowledge, science, and educational advancement. It is a great honor for us that today representatives of Armenia’s pedagogical community have gathered at YSU to discuss new opportunities for the development of education, share experiences, and outline key directions for the future,” noted YSU Rector Hovhannes Hovhannisyan in his opening speech.

“Conversations about technology in education too often become conversations about products: which platform, device, application. While these things are important and need to be discussed, what determines whether technology improves learning is the quality of the system around it - curriculum, pedagogy, institutional framework, and above all, the teacher,” explained Silvia Mestroni, UNICEF Acting Representative. “For UNICEF, it is clear that technology without these foundations does not close learning gaps. In some cases, it widens them, because access to technology can be unequal. This is not to demonize digital transformation, but to say that for digital transformation to be meaningful, it must be teacher-centered and students centered. This conviction shapes UNICEF's work in this area and drives the tools and guidance we develop for teachers worldwide.”

As part of the conference, a plenary session titled “The Role of Technological Education in the Modern School” was held, during which Deputy Minister Araksia Svajyan delivered a presentation on the impact of technological education programmes on the quality of general education.

Education Specialist Matti Juhani Rossi from UNICEF's Global Learning Innovation Hub joined the plenary session with a presentation on the Hub's key initiatives supporting the evidence-based, safe and impactful use of technologies in education. His presentation featured digital pedagogy as an overarching practice, the Superstar Teacher Toolbox as a practical tool for classroom application by teachers, EdTech for Good as guiding principles to identify, assess and support the scale-up of EdTech solutions, the Learning Cabinet as an online platform to discover impactful, scalable and adaptable EdTech tools, and the Blue Unicorn Portfolio as a collection of high-potential solutions to be accelerated and scaled.

Mr. Rossi highlighted: "Technology in learning is not used for its own sake. Digital tools should be used with clear teaching goals, strong pedagogy, and learner-centred methods so that students can participate actively, collaborate, think, create, receive feedback, and grow as learners. The teacher remains central in making technology meaningful."

Panel discussions were also held on various topics related to technological education.

Before the start of the conference, participants explored an exhibition showcasing project-based learning by school students, opened in the central building of Yerevan State University.