YEREVAN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Around 40,000 first-year students went to school in Armenia on Sept. 1 of this year, a public education official said Thursday.
The day, also known as Knowledge Day in many other former Soviet countries, is the first day of the school year in Armenia.
"The final number of both school students and university students will be available a bit later," said Narine Hovhannisyan, head of the public education department of Armenia's Ministry of Education.
The number of students for this year is already larger than that of last year, when 39,246 students were reported to have attended school on Sept. 1, 2015.
A number of events have been planned in Armenian schools for September as later this month the country will be marking its 25th anniversary of independence. The curricula in public schools have also been changed to reduce the workload for students from 1st to 4th grades.
Armenia has a total of 1,430 public schools, 850 of which have fewer than 300 students, while about 400 schools have fewer than 500 students.
