Epress.am News from Armenia
The Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia has begun to publish piecemeal his annual report, which covers various sectors. The section published today is called "What Rights the Ministry of Education Violated in 2013".
The following are some of the omissions and problems the Ombudsman highlighted in Armenia's education sector:
– Only 117 of Armenia's 1400 schools implemented inclusive education — with, however, obvious gaps. As a result, the right to education of thousands of children with disabilities were violated, since only 8% of schools are accessible to them.
– As a rule, the deadline for the payment of tuition for socially disadvantaged students who have a high academic performance was not extended, which caused serious problems for these students — from an unnecessary financial burden up to expulsion from the university.
– Continued in the educational sector were fundraising, a differentiated approach toward educators, as well as cases of lawlessness committed by [school] principals.
– In some cases, members of commissions in scientific competitions also took part as participants and exhibited bias, but as because of a legislative gap, competition participants were deprived of the opportunity to recuse that member.
– As a result of deficient inspections, the availability of expired medication or the lack thereof, and the level of medical care in schools were not revealed.
– The Ministry did not take measures to resolve the problem of the student councils of some universities being politicized, since this is contrary to the principle of universities not being politicized.
– The communal conditions of schools in Yerevan and the regions [outside Yerevan] were not improved, resulting in several schools till today being in extremely poor condition.
– In some cases, as a result of erroneous calculation by a school's directorate, teachers didn't receive their social package funds.