Before creating their own alphabet the Armenians used Arameic and Greek characters. Schools in foreign languages existed since the 2^nd century BC. The first Armenian schools started to operate in the 5^th c. BC., immediately after creating the Armenian script in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, the first teacher whom the Armenian Church reveres among its saints.

Together with elementary schools, higher schools have been developed followed by school-universities. The first of them was Amaras School (4^th c.) at Amaras Monastery (now in Nagorno Karabakh) where Mesrop Mashtots taught theology and his newly invented Armenian alphabet. In the 7^th century Shirak School became famous, where Ananya Shirakatsy used to teach. Later on, in 9^th - 10^th cc. the Tatev Academy was found at the Tatev Monastery. Besides the church schools, secular public schools already operated in the medieval period in Armenia. Orphans and children from poor families studied there free of charge. In the 17-19^th centuries Armenian schools opened in Venice (Mkhitaryan college), in India (Calcutta college), in Moscow (the Lazaryan School), in Tiflis,in Madras and other places.

The modern educational system has been established during the short existence of the first Republic in Armenia (1918 - 1920). It has further developed during the years of Soviet Power (1920 - 1990) while the school was separated from the church and became secular. At the present time, the following levels of education exist in Armenia: pre-school education (for 3-6 year-old children); secondary school (10 grades for 7-17 year-old children); secondary vocational education (on the basis of 8 and 10 grade education providing elementary professional qualification); higher education (Bachelor, Specialist with Diploma, Master); and post-graduate education (post-graduate study – doctor of philosophy; doctorate – doctor of science).

Education in Armenia has traditionally been highly rated. Armenia has reported 99% literacy rate since 1960s. Today, the most important national issue is considered the maintenance and development of the education system,ensuring its compatibility in the international environment. This can be proved by the laws and decrees issued after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Matenadaran is one of the oldest and richest book depositories in the world. Its collection of about 17,000 manuscripts includes almost all of the areas of ancient and medieval Armenian culture and sciences – history, geography, grammar, philosophy, law, medicine, mathematics, cosmography, theory of calendar, alchemy, chemistry, translations, literature, miniature, music and theater, as well as manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Greek, Syrian, Latin, Ethiopian, Indian, Japanese and others.

To read more about studying and interning in Armenia, as well as the Armenian universities and programs, please visit the Study in Armenia section.

The first testimony of natural knowledge in Armenia is the preserved drawings on rocks. Besides evidence of farming, trade, building techniques, the religious structures showed some level of astronomic knowledge. In 5-6^th centuries Davit Anhakht (Invincible) put grammar, oratory, and logic format on the level of preliminary science. Yeznik Koghbatsy restored the traditions of the Greek natural philosophy. Ananya Shirakatsy scientifically explained the eclipse of the Sun and the Moon, supported the idea of spherical shape of the Earth, and created the first book on arithmetic.Science was in the height of its fame during Armenian Renaissance (9-13 centuries). In 1935 the National Academy of Science was established in Armenia. In 1942 the experiments held by brothers Alikhanyan on the altitude of 3,200 meters above sea level, on Stone Lake, proved the existence of the third element of cosmic rays.

One of the inventors of color television was Hovhannes Adamyan, who was the first to develop the principles of broadcasting of consequent color images by optical-mechanical medium and light transmission.

In 1980 on Mount Aragats the academician Paris Heruni constructed one of the most complicated and precise radio observatories in the world: a 54-diameter combined radio-optical antenna, the surface of which was covered with 4,000 mirrors. This new system was able to accept the emanation of the farthest galactic radio waves in the short-wave range.

According to European investigators the names of constellations have originated on the territory of ancient Armenia. P. Heruni discovered and explored the stone observatory Karahunge. It was proved to be a agan temple, a university and a powerful observatory, which functioned more than 7,500 years ago, more than 3,500 years before the English ancient stone temple and observatory Stonehenge.

In the world of astronomy research the Byurakan Observatory is a famous center found in 1946. Furthermore, the Cosmic center of Garni was found in the 1960s when the first Armenian space observatories called K-2 were created with the aim to investigate the Sun in extremely short waves. In 1973 Orion-2, a very powerful cosmic observatory created in the Garni Center was sent into space.

Private hospitals existed in Armenia as early as in the 3^rd century. The herbs from the Armenian Plateau were exported to a number of countries in the East and the West and were utilized by ancient pharmacies. Yeznik Koghbatsy was the first to mention in medieval manuscripts the theory of the four elements of nature and the four corresponding liquids. In the works of Davit Anhakht, 5-6^th centuries, research on human anatomy, officinal, hygiene and biology were found. Today the Armenian medical ideas are considered one of the best in the world as well as the great discoveries in the field of chemistry.