Epress.am News from Armenia
Hovhannes Ghazaryan (pictured), a student at Yerevan's No. 71 primary school named after Nelson Stepanyan, refused to change schools as requested by his fellow classmates. Consequently, the students were transferred to another class and Ghazaryan became the only student in class 6B. On April 10, the school principal, Gayane Demiryan, signed a decree "to consider class 6B closed as a result of the transfer of 23 of the 24 students in class 6B." This was stated in a Facebook post by MP Nikol Pashinyan, who yesterday paid a visit to the school.
According to Pashinyan, the principal could not answer the question based on what law or sub-legislative act does she reserve the right to deem the class closed? Neither did head of Yerevan Municipality's Department of General Education Gayane Soghomonyan have the answer to this question.
"As a result of the signing of the aforementioned decree, the rights of the only student remaining in class 6B, Harutyun Ghazaryan, were grossly violated. I asked Gayane Demiryan directly whether Harutyun Ghazaryan is considered a student of No. 71 school after this decree was signed. She gave a definite positive response. In this case, which class is Harutyun a student of? Mrs. Demiryan didn't have an answer to this question. My next question, if Harutyun comes to school at 8:30 am tomorrow, in which class is he to receive his education, Demiryan likewise didn't have an answer. (Harutyun hasn't been going to school for the past 10 days, due to health issues)," wrote Pashinyan.
According to the MP, the principal's office sent a notice to the Ghazaryan family, informing them that class 6B, where Harutyun was studying, is closed, and class 6A is full; that is, they cannot transfer Harutyun to that class.
"Thus, No. 71 school, which has an agreement with Harutyun's parents to facilitate his studies, is refusing to fulfill its contractual obligations toward 6th grade student Harutyun Ghazaryan. This is an unacceptable, flagrant fact, and should be assessed accordingly," wrote Pashinyan.
In late November 2013, local daily Zhoghovurd reported that the students of class 6B were boycotted classes, blaming Harutyun for hitting them. Later, the boy's parents, Hovsep Ghazaryan and Marina Vardanyan, explained [AM] to Epress.am their side of the story.
"The truth is under the auspices of several young and careerist parents and the acquiescence of the directorate, for five consecutive years vicious hierarchic relations formed among the boys of that class, where the sons of a few parents suffering from vainglorious ambitions had the status of rulers: where they were allowed freely in the presence of teachers and female students to utter profanities of a sexual nature to children whom they regularly subjected to pressure, and to punch and even impertinently humiliate female students, among whom were also a few new female students returning to the homeland from Syria.
"All this was advantageous also for the teaching staff, for whom what was important was 'not raising a fuss' over the situation prevailing in the classroom — and not the elementary teaching norm to aspire to justice and truth.
"From the first day Harutyun entered the classroom, he was faced with the imperative requirement to submit to these relations of 'subordination', but, being fair-minded and having a strong will and logic, he of course could not tolerate the prevailing insolent behavior of the so-called 'leaders' of the class, which was a serious obstacle to the immoral, vainglorious path of their parents," they said.