The children
are left out of education because of poor social conditions and having special
needs. This date is picked from the results of “The Protection of the Right to
Education of Children who are Left out of Education” program carried out by
Armenian Helsinki Committee.

The program pursued an aim of
revealing those children, who are left out of education, disclosing the
reasons, elaborating recommendations and submitting them to state bodies, local
self-government bodies and non-governmental organizations.

The research was carried out in
54 communities of 9 regions and in Shengavit Administrative District.

In the 55 communities 101
children have been registered, who because of various reasons do not receive
basic education, that is to say they haven’t graduated from 9 grade, and that
is required by the legislation, says Hasmik Hovhannisyan, representative of
Armenian Helsinki Committee.

The most of these children come
from needy families. 

“The parents state that their
children do not go to school because ofthe lack of clothes, shoes and
stationery”, says Sirvard Mamikonyan, executive director of Armenian Helsinki
Committee and specialist of Children’s Rights.

The research showed that some
of those children help their parents to solve the social problems. Especially
in the rural communities there are many children, who do not go to school or
are regularly absent from the lessons because they are involved in agricultural
activities or do other work to earn money.

 “The government and the interested
organizations should provide those families with at least the minimum
conditions for the children not to be left out of education”, mentions Sirvard Mamikonyan.

However, Hasmik Hovhannisyan
thinks it is significant for the parents to realize the importance of
education, because the research has shown that the children from needy families
go or do not go to school regardless of the social conditions.

According to the data of the
research 30 of 101 children, who are left out of education, do not go to school
as a result of a need of special education conditions. One of the reasons is
that there is no special or inclusive school in the community, and the people
who implement the program suggest developing an appropriate system of making
the inclusive education available in all communities.

There are also cases when the
parents are ashamed of or avoid taking the children to special or inclusive
schools.

“We have to work with the
parents to raise the level of awareness”, concludes Sirvard Mamikonyan.

The research also revealed
children who though registered in the schools, however very often are absent
from the lessons. “The teachers do them a favour by not marking them absent,
thus their education is formal”, says the representative of Helsinki Committee,
adding that there have been many such children in the Lori region.

The children with family
problems and children from the families that frequently change the dwelling
place are very often left out of education.

The public places and the
vicinities of markets and churches were observed during the monitoring as well,
in order to disclose vagrant or begging children. A child was disclosed in the
Gyumri municipal cemetery and another child-in Lori. “But they are extremely
vulnerable, they avoid people and we could not talk to them to find out who
they were and why they appeared on the street”, says Sirvard Mamikonyan.

No vagrant or begging children
have been disclosed in Shengavit community of Yerevan.

Armenian Helsinki Committee
suggests establishing effective control system for the children, who do not go
to school, making the cooperation between the competent ministries,
corresponding departments of regional municipalities and local self-government
bodies efficient in order to provide the right to education of those children
who are left out of education.

 “Those children are left out of not only
educational system but also of a whole social system, with the range of
consequences deriving from that. And the state needs to have a joint policy and
a system approach in order to settle that issue”, thinks Artak Kirakosyan,
chairman of board of the NGO, general secretary of the International Federation
For Human Rights, who is also chairman of the group conducting observation in
the special institutions ofsecondary education.

According to him the state
bodies and departments have to confess that they are not able to settle the issue on their own. Mr. Kirakosyan suggests to
establish a special network of beneficiary and human rights protection
organizations, journalists, state bodies to solve the problems of those
children who are left out of education.

Mr. Kirakosyan thinks that the
network should work on the problems of each child and make annual reports emphasizing
not the quantity but the quality of the result.

Mery Alexanyan