Anahit Bakhshyan: “What does inclusive education begin with”?

Anahit Bakhshyan/Deputy director of the National institute of education/ made this statement in her speech during the international conference “Inclusive education: Contemporary issues and challenges”. As she says, 16 years ago “the question “What does inclusive education start with” was answered by question “And what is it?” We had not even heard about it.

“If today we ask the same question, we will answer that inclusive education starts from the state policy because it is the order of the state, which requires a change of attitude, development of teachers’ skills and competencies, funding, cooperation between all pedagogical sectors and society”, – she said.

Bakhshyan said that as inclusiveness is a state policy, everybody has to work in education sphere with this ideology. By adopting the Law “On making amendments in RA Law on General education, on December 1^st of 2014, Armenia has confirmed the political will of transition to inclusive education: “The Republic of Armenia declares inclusive education as a guarantee ensuring every child’s right to education”.

Full text in Armenian