Anahit Bakhshyan: “Kindergartens should be free only for socially vulnerable families”

WomenNet.am talks about the problems of pre-school education in Yerevan with Anahit Bakhshyan, a candidate for the Council of Elders nominated by the Luys bloc in the forthcoming municipal elections. Mrs. Bakhshyan, who deals with education issues for many years, says that pre-school education in Yerevan is only for 55% of children, while others cannot use that education for various reasons. The main thing is that places in kindergartens are limited because at different times the buildings of the kindergartens have been alienated, they have been leased. At the same time, there is another problem: there are kindergartens where the ready-made rooms are empty and they do not accept children. Mrs. Bakhshyan has her own version of solution of the problem of the kindergarten…

I’ve talked about it all the time and will continue to take that line because I think it’s right to return to the paid kindergartens but with a differentiated approach to families. Thus, the burden of Erevan’s budget will be exacerbated.

Yerevan is the only community where kindergartens are free; no such approach is applied in all other regions. Also, the problem is that pre-school education is not mandatory by the Constitution, i.e. the state has not taken the obligation to make pre-school education free. This also means that this service is paid and good will is shown only in Yerevan, it’s too unfair to the regions. I have spoken about it for many years.

Full text in Armenian