Curriculum and Learning : Towards a Competency-based Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Curriculum Reform in Armenia (English)

Around the world, basic education fails to equip many young people with the essential skills needed for employability in a 21st century job market. Almost half of students in low- and middle-income countries complete their basic education without having developed foundational literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills. Moreover, evolving labor markets demand 21st-century skills like collaboration and critical reasoning, which are not consistently integrated into education systems. To address these issues, it is necessary to ensure that students learn in a meaningful and consistent manner to develop more advanced skills, ultimately enabling them to become more productive citizens who can adapt to the changing nature of work. This report documents the ambitious reimagining of Armenia's Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) curriculum in basic education. It describes the main drivers of the reform's success to date, challenges faced, and rigorous evidence of positive impacts on learning from pilot implementation. With few experiences to draw from, analysis of comprehensive curriculum reforms is relatively rare, limiting the knowledge base for other countries to draw from. This report aims to help fill that gap by: (i) describing the reform process through the lens of the four main elements of effective curriculum reforms described above and (ii) evaluating the reform's implementation and impacts to date. The report focuses on activities related to STEM subjects that were funded by the EU4Innovation Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Pilot Activities Trust Fund. The government has carried out activities related to non-STEM subjects in parallel.