The child who quit attending Vanadzor School No 22 due to the mistreatment by the teacher has been transferred to another school after alerting HCA Vanadzor
18:47, November 16, 2017 | News, Own news | Right to Education
The mother of one of the second-graders in Vanadzor School No 22 alerted HCA Vanadzor, informing that N. Antonyan, the homeroom teacher, regularly used violence against the student, as a consequence of which the child refused to attend school. As reported by the parent, the head of the school refused to provide the child’s documents to transfer him to a different school.
The second-grader A. Ts’ mother turned to HCA Vanadzor in October of this year and stated that in February 2017 N. Antonyan, the teacher, hit the child for unsatisfactory performance, due to which bruises formed on the child’s ear and the student urinated due to being scared. As informed by the parent, the homeroom teacher humiliated the child in front of the entire class and left him in that state of humiliation until the end of the classes.
In order to receive some clarification of the raised issue, HCA Vanadzor turned to the RA Ministry of Education as well as D. Melkonyan, the Headmaster of Vanadzor School No 22.
As informed by the Ministry, the latter is going to pursue the restoration of the child’s right to education. In addition to this statement, the Ministry presented the clarification received from Lori Regional Administration. Later, Headmaster D. Melkonyan responded to the letter of HCA Vanadzor.
As notified by D. Melkonyan, Z. Ts. exaggerated the events. He insisted that the bruises reported by the parent, were not the result of the teacher’s actions but rather the result of the argument with classmates, which was resolved thanks to the intervention by the deputy head teacher.
As far as N. Antonyan’s actions are concerned, she confessed that she engaged in conduct unacceptable for a pedagogue and scolded the student and voiced the concern that the child smelled unpleasant.
N. Antonyan received a warning from the headmaster.
The headmaster clarified the refusal to provide the child’s personal record by the fact that the child’s mother was not in Armenia and the caretakers of the child, the aunt and the grandmother, were not his legal representatives. Consequently, it would be impossible to provide the personal record.
After alerting HCA Vanadzor, on November 2, 2017 the matter was discussed first at the Department for the Protection of Family and Children’s and Women’s Rights of Lori Regional Administration and then at the Administration of Education, Culture and Sport.
The multi-professional participants in the discussion concluded that in case of the parent’s absence, the latter’s electronic application is to be considered as a basis for transferring the child to a different school for the purpose of enabling them to exercise the right to education.
The child is already attending Vanadzor School No 1.