Tumo – the Most Innovative Center Worldwide

YEREVAN (Panorama.am) — French magazine “We Demain” has ranked Ten Best Schools worldwide with Armenian Tumo Center for Creative Technologies on the top of the list. Tumo has left behind such renowned educational institutions as AltSchool of Silicon Valley, Fuji Kindergarten of Tokyo, and Steve Jobs School.

The news came as surprise for the Center employees and those of studying there. The head of Communication department at Tumo Center told Panorama.am that the reporter of the mentioned journal visited them in November 2015 and took an interview with Tumo director Marie Lou Papazian.

“We are quite surprised at learning that the report came as a ranking list. We rather expected an article about Tumo, without even expecting such an evaluation,” Budaghyan said.

She then added the journal is not specialized in Innovative technologies: “They rather reflected on the schools that work for the public. We are pleased to see the ranking number one next to Tumo and we deem their approach as a very positive and emotional.”

It should be noted that the center has never been included in similar rankings so far, no studies of technological research have been conducted to look into the Armenian school standing compared with other similar institutions in the world. Nevertheless, judging from the positive feedback of various international structures and specialists, the increasing interest toward the school, the results are satisfying and encouraging.

“They contact us from different countries, from France, Egypt, Russia, Beirut. We are currently discussing the prospects of founding Tumo Centers in other states. We try to understand its feasibility. Those feedbacks might be regarded as symbolic assessments,” the communication director said.

According to Budaghyan, the students’ successes and recorded results are also speaking of the Center assessment, their record of entering international universities, finding a job in the labor market.

“Despite their young age, our students and graduates work in the best companies of Armenia. Now we have three start-up companies in the center which were established and operated by our graduates and students,” Budaghyan noted.

Tumo is a new kind of after-school learning environment where thousands of students aged 12-18 are in charge of their own learning.

Tumo is a non-profit venture and participation in the Tumo program is free of charge and open to all local teenagers. Tumo has four centers located in Yerevan Gyumri, Dilijan, and Stepanakert having in total 10,000 enrolled students.