Specialized Boarding School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
Since 2002, one of my main projects has been the issue of children enrolled into state-run residential institutions. Despite its smaller size, somewhere between 11-12,000 children attend or reside in over 50 boarding schools and children’s homes in Armenia. In neighboring Georgia, where initiatives to de-institutionalize children are years ahead of Armenia, there are only 5,000. It’s therefore with great interest that I read ArmeniaNow.com’s article on plans to close 12 specialized boarding schools.
Angry teachers have condemned a government decision to close secondary schools for nearly 1,000 orphaned and socially vulnerable children.
Officials in the Ministry of Education and Science want to integrate children in the 12 special secondary institutions into mainstream schools. They argue that separate schools for orphans and other children who lack proper parental care simply isolates them from the rest of society.
But staff in the schools insist that their children face special problems and that closure will damage their emotional and educational welfare.
According to the government’s decision, the special schools should be converted into regular secondary schools by the end of 2007. Special boarding centers would be created to meet the needs of children who were unable to go home.
“These children are by no means deficient compared to their peers, they don’t need special education; so why separate them from the society?! Implementation of this decision will integrate them into society,†says Louiza Gharibyan, representative of the Agency for Family Issues at the Ministry of Labor and Social Issues.
However, I don’t like the use of the word “orphans” in this article because the vast majority of children attending specialized boarding schools have parents and families. Instead, these kids attend boarding schools generally intended for children with disabilities because they can receive food, and even though these schools have facilities for children to stay overnight, most attend on a daily basis or at the very least return to their families at weekends. Nevertheless, the Directors of such schools are not happy with plans to close or convert them.
“It will be the same with these schools as it was with the vocational colleges when they closed them and now spend huge sums to restore them,†says Simon Simonyan, Principal of the Yerevan Special School for Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care # 3.
Simonyan believes there is still a need in this type of school and it will be possible to close them only in 10 to 15 years, when social conditions in Armenia have improved.
“You will simply kick 1,000 children into the street by eliminating this type of school, for many here are on the edge of delinquency and need special attention and pedagogical work, something an ordinary school cannot provide,†he says.
Samvel Mktrchyan, Principal at the Special School #7, thinks that the problems faced by these children will not disappear because of the entrance into force of this new law. They exist and need special attention, he says.
“There is no need to develop theories, just look at the reality with an open mind. Children of this category cannot integrate into a group of well-off and indulged children; they will not go to ordinary school,†says Mkrtchyan.
According to Mktrchyan the main reasons for not going to a mainstream school are social and psychological.
“Take the simplest situation: the pupil will not able to pay for textbooks, will not be able to pay for a party with the class, and will not be able to take part in buying a present for a teacher. This will isolate him from school and society even more, a bigger psychological complex will develop in him, more than it would if he had stayed in this kind of school,†Mktrchyan explains.
Specialized Boarding School, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
Sorry to sound cynical, but they would say that as these children represent their livelihood. Indeed, there is no question that most of these schools should be closed down. After all, such establishments don’t exist in the West where alternative models of care exist for children that are really deprived of parental care. For example, there is fostering and kinship care or integration into and normal schools, and it is these models that the Armenian government, international organizations and the World Bank are now looking at. I touched upon this in a recent article for UNICEF.
“There are many reasons why children with parents are deprived of parental care in Armenia,” explains Avetisyan. “First of all there is poverty, then centralization of special education within the boarding school system and finally, the absence of alternatives and community-based support services for vulnerable families at risk.”
In 2000, UNICEF invited an international consultant to conduct a study on residential care institutions in Armenia.
Based on the recommendations of the resulting report, alternatives to institutionalization were discussed in round table discussions with the Ministries of Health, Education, Social Welfare, Justice and Police. A three year plan of action was developed and UNICEF, the Armenian Government and NGOs collaborated together on the implementation of a work plan.
[…]
Now, the Armenian Government is interested in de-institutionalization through family reintegration, foster care and the prevention of institutionalization through community-based support centers. It has also developed a law that obliges the state to provide support to “graduates” from Children’s Homes once they reach the age of 18.
“Even if you create excellent conditions in the institution, when the children leave this artificial environment they have no life skills or the capacity to deal with daily problems,” Avetisyan says. “For example, studies show that as a result, many of these children end up in conflict with the law and some girls become prostitutes and are more prone to trafficking.”
Specialized Boarding School, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
Perhaps the main issue that many overlook is that the majority of children enrolled into specialized boarding schools intended for kids with disabilities are actually not disabled at all. At the same time, those children with disabilities are often prevented from attending schools set up for them because it is easier for teachers to deal with “normal” children instead even if it means that they will not develop their full potential. Again, I touched upon this in an article written in 2002.
A mother waits patiently to enroll her son at an Auxiliary Boarding School for children with learning disabilities somewhere in the heart of the Armenian capital. It doesn’t seem to matter to the staff that the twelve-year old isn’t disabled, all the school requires, the Director says, is a medical certificate.
But, with salaries low in the medical sector, many doctors are all too willing to provide fake diagnosis to parents wishing to enroll their children into residential institutions. In fact, Dennis Loze, Project Coordinator for Mission East’s Mosaic Program in Armenia says that 85% of children already residing in Auxiliary Boarding Schools are falsely diagnosed.
“They are accepting children with no problem whatsoever because parents cannot afford to clothe and feed them,” he says, adding that Mission East had to literally fight to have three children with Down’s syndrome admitted into one boarding school after being told by the Director that she now only accommodated ‘normal’ children.
Suspicions that this was not the case were later confirmed by the Ministry of Education and Science. However, so serious is the problem that the Armenian Government has decided to address the issue in a national program of actions targeted towards the protection of children’s rights, including reform of the admission system.
“With the declining level of services in residential institutions, the current trend is creating an underclass of children marked by poverty, stigmatization and a lack of proper care and education who are likely to lack opportunity as adults,” writes Aleksandra Posarac and Jjalte Sederlof in the World Bank’s Armenian Child Welfare Note for June 2002.
“To the extent that such children end up in institutions for the mentally disabled, which offer only a special education syllabus for children with mental disability,” they continue, “their development will be seriously hampered by lack of educational opportunities.”
Boarding Schools were established during the soviet era for children with developmental, physical and emotional disabilities and while a 1985 Soviet Decree permitted the admission of children from vulnerable families into Secondary Boarding Schools, Auxiliary Boarding Schools were only meant to cater for children with specific medical or psychological needs.
But, with a sizeable proportion of the population living below the poverty line, many families are increasingly looking to residential institutions to provide what the First Deputy Minister of Social Security, Ashot Yesayan, calls in a report to be published by Family Support America next year, “the primary ‘social safety-net’ for their children.”
[…]
“Children are removed from their families as the only alternative to remaining hungry,” says Nicholas McCoy, the author of the report. “Even if that means committing them to a residential institution or sending them out onto the streets to work, research shows that vulnerable children are not necessarily the victims of earthquake and war but come primarily from economically deprived families.”
Specialized Boarding School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
At the Boarding School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Yerevan, for example, only 40 percent of the kids can’t see. The rest are from socially vulnerable families. In other cases, international organizations have had to fight to get children with disabilities enrolled into the very institutions they’re meant to be, although that’s not to say that many couldn’t be integrated into mainstream education.
I also have good reason to suspect that the best interests of the children are furthest from the mind of staff at some boarding schools. One international aid worker gave me an example of this four years ago, although one hopes this the exception rather than the rule.
[…] while Children’s Homes in Armenia have received substantial support from the large Armenian Diaspora, conditions in over fifty Boarding Schools have deteriorated considerably since independence. One Director, for example, is believed to keep conditions as bad as possible in order to attract extra finance from international organizations working in the republic — money that the children will never see.
“Mission East has stopped dealing with this Director completely because we understand that there is a greater incentive for him to keep conditions as they are,” says Loze. “Whatever resources directed to him will simply disappear.”
But Naira Avetisyan, UNICEF’s Child Protection Officer, is quick to point out that the staff at most boarding schools and children’s homes in Armenia are genuinely concerned with the well-being of those entrusted into their care. “However,” she adds, “the importance of strengthening vulnerable families by providing them with job opportunities has to be emphasized rather than supporting the institutions.”
But, with few exceptions, conditions in Armenia’s Boarding Schools are poor, with international organizations having to operate feeding programs in some schools so that the children can at least receive their basic nutrition. The Armenian Relief Society (ARS), for example, operates three such feeding programs in Yerevan alone, but for the most part, children are undernourished.
“This can easily be observed in the faces and stature of most of these children,” says McCoy. “They are noticeably thin, have drawn faces and many are stunted in growth and small for their age. At the majority of boarding schools, the diet consists mainly of carbohydrates such as pasta, potatoes and bread while few can afford to serve fruit, vegetables or meat.”
Specialized Boarding School, Kapan, Siunik Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that most of Armenia’s specialized boarding schools should be closed and, as the Georgian and Armenian government consider is best, with those children really deprived of parental care placed in foster or kinship care less, and those with less than severe disabilities being integrated into mainstream education as NGOs such as Bridge of Hope and World Vision are doing in the Tavoush, Shirak and Siunik regions. Attitudes also need to change.
“My daughter was born with Cerebral Palsy,” says one mother whose child has benefited from the work of the NGO. “Relatives tried to convince me that my daughter, Ashkhen, wasn’t normal and would destroy my life and that of my family. My husband abandoned me and I was left alone with my child.”
Ashkhen grew up in isolation and was deprived of the opportunity to interact with other children until she was later enrolled into a specialized boarding school that offered only a watered-down curriculum for children with learning disabilities. Separated from her mother for most of the week, Ashkhen returned home on weekends. In 1996, however, when her mother heard about the Bridge of Hope NGO, Tatevik was eager to find out more.
“When I entered the center the first thing I noticed was that there were non-disabled children there,” she says. “I never thought that disabled and non-disabled children could relate to each other.” Sixty percent of the children that attend are not disabled and of those that are, nearly half are diagnosed with cerebral palsy and a third with Down’s Syndrome.
Over the years, while still attending the specialized school, Tatevik says that Ashkhen developed quickly, becoming more communicable and confident. In 1999, at the age of 15, Bridge of Hope helped Ashkhen make the move to a regular school close to where she lives. She is now one of the most active and high-achieving children in her class and thanks to including both disabled and non-disabled children in the centers, stereotypes are being broken down.
Of course, there will be problems if alternative models of care, including community care centers, are not established first.
“There are many reasons why children with parents are deprived of parental care in Armenia,” explains Avetisyan. “First of all there is poverty, then centralization of special education within the boarding school system and finally, the absence of alternatives and community-based support services for vulnerable families at risk.”
“The majority of children in children’s homes and boarding schools are not orphans,” she continues. “They have parents and the right to live with their families.”
But, while some organizations conclude that Armenia’s Boarding Schools should be closed, such plans could create additional problems unless the root cause of the problem is addressed. UNICEF and the Armenian Ministry of the Interior estimate that there are as many as 400 children street children in Yerevan and numbers could increase if others are removed from care and effectively thrown out onto the streets.
Susanna Hayrapetyan, Social Sector Operations Offer for the World Bank’s Office in Yerevan, says that the international financial organization favors a phased approach as part of the Armenian Government’s overall Poverty Reduction Strategy. “It can’t happen overnight,” she explains. “It needs special consideration and a transition phase of at least a year and a half.”
As a result, in a wide-ranging ten-year National Program for the Protection of Children’s Rights in Armenia, the Armenian Government and NGOs working in this area propose introducing measures that will include steps taken to prevent the enrolment of children into boarding schools and the return of those already in residential institutions to their families.
“It is extremely difficult to measure the impact that removing a child from their home environment has,” says McCoy. “And, although it is too early to substantiate claims that the well-being of children placed in residential care will be affected, it may very well take an entire generation before we fully understand the social and psychological ramifications of this phenomenon.”
“However,” he concludes, “institutionalizing children only perpetuates the problem of social vulnerability in Armenia by seriously undermining the development of programs that could support the family and keep children out of institutions.”
Specialized Boarding School, Sisian, Siunik Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
The one exception, perhaps, would be the Specialized Boarding School for the Deaf in Nor Nork where all the children can’t hear. Moreover, the staff and parents are all very active in creating the best school for the children that they can given modest expenditure from the State Budget. Apparently, the deaf community in every country is always well organized and active, and it’s nice to see that Armenia is no exception. If any institution deserved support it’s this one.
Specialized Boarding School for the Deaf, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimeda 2002
