Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Sport and Youth Affairs of the National Assembly, issues a statement today that a discussion on the pros and cons regarding the mandatory teaching of chess in public schools will be held given the large number of letters received from the parents of schoolchildren on the matter.

In 2011, The Ministry of Education made chess part of the primary school curriculum for children over the age of six. Over $1.5 million was spent on the program that was generally positively received by the public. Some parents, however, complained that their children’s school curriculum was already extensive.

Hayrapetyan, Armenia’s former Minister of the Diaspora, says the committee will discuss the following points:

How to increase the functional importance of chess training

How to increase the cost efficiency of the sector,

How to integrate state-of-the-art technologies into the preparation and evaluation of chess courses that will help motivate children more

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a mandatory and/or volunteer chess course.