Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #670
Dec 21 2012

Armenia Moves Towards Integrated Schooling

Major education reform sees mainstream schools gradually refitted with
facilities and access for disabled pupils.

By Arpi Beglaryan – Caucasus

Armenia is equipping mainstream schools to allow disabled children to
attend them, instead of being educated separately.

The reform stems from the obligations Armenia undertook in 2010 when
it ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
which requires states to prevent discrimination and afford equal
access to all.

The change will not be completed for another decade, since Armenia’s
school buildings generally date from the Soviet era, and it is
difficult to adapt them for wheelchair access and other specialised
needs.

Naira Harutyunyan, head of the inclusive education department at a
school in the capital Yerevan, said her institution currently accepted
children with mental disabilities, but could not yet take pupils who
used wheelchairs because it lacked the funds needed to make adequate
changes.

`The ramp we have is a problem,’ she explain. `We’ve experimented with
it and discovered that wheelchairs could tip over on the descent, so
we’ve stopped using it,’ she said.

Azniv Manukyan, a psychologist at the same school, welcomed the
reform, noting the dramatic change she had observed in one autistic
boy over the course of a year.

`An inclusive system is the right thing for children like that,
because they forced into a place that will benefit them,’ she said.
`When you have one-on-one tuition with any pupil, you will always get
results. In class, the teachers play a very important role, and we
also have extra sessions.’

In October, Education Minister Armen Ashotyan submitted a bill laying
down the principles for inclusive schooling. He said all 1,347 schools
in Armenia would be opened to all pupils, and noted that the reform
would reduce the cost of educating disabled children in separate
schools.

Armenia currently has 107 integrated schools, with the numbers
increasing by 15 a year.

Where there is opposition to the scheme, it often arises from
prejudice among parents.

`Three years ago, when I started working at this school, there were
parents who asked for their children not to be sat near `children with
problems’; they didn’t want their children to be in the same class as
disabled children,’ Manukyan said. `But I have to say that increasing
numbers of parents now ensure they teach their children to make
friends with the disabled kids.’

Harutyunyan said another obstacle to success was that placing disabled
children in inclusive schools was still a matter of parental choice.

`I would urge the government to reconsider the rule that parents
themselves can decide which school their children should study at,’
she said.

The boarding schools where severely disabled children have studied up
to now insist that the rationale for their existence has not gone
away.

`We still have children with the most difficult of conditions,’
Artsvik Arshakyan, the principal of one such school in Yerevan, said.
`Children with lesser disabilities should be moved into inclusive
education system, but our school must remain as a starting-point.
There are always going to be children with serious disabilities, and
if they have nowhere to go, they will end up on the street.’

Minister Ashotyan confirmed that some of the Soviet-era schools would
be retained.

`We can’t just eliminate these special schools in Armenia, just as
they can’t be eliminated in any other country,’ he told parliament.
`But the number has to be limited, and children shouldn’t be placed in
them unless there’s good reason.’

The basic rule was that children who could attend mainstream schools
should do so.

`Society must become more receptive and tolerant,’ he said. `It has to
understand that these are members of society, the children of this
society.’

Arpi Beglaryan is a reporter for emedia.am in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress