“I want to work, to whose care should I leave my child?” Protest action in front of the City Hall / completed

The problem of kindergartens remains one of the most painful social problems. No matter how much the relevant authorities try to mitigate it, to show new approaches, the parents are justifiably dissatisfied, because the main problem – the right of children to pre-school education is not available to everyone.

On February 8, a group of parents, mostly mothers with their children, staged a protest near the Yerevan City Hall. The demand that united the citizens is one: to finally organize a proper reception in kindergartens, which will make it as accessible as possible for more children to attend pre-school. In addition to protesting in front of the city hall, the protesters also submitted a petition signed by 108 parents, demanding that the reception be resumed and that the children attend kindergarten.

First of all, it should be mentioned that the online application can be sent by the child’s parent or legal representative by registering on Mankapartez.yerevan.am website. According to the procedure, the registration is done once. Children under the age of 2 and up to 6 are enrolled in the kindergartens subordinated to the Municipality of Yerevan.

However, it turns out that this procedure is flawed and there are many parents who have registered in time and properly, but their children will soon go to school, and it is not time to go to kindergarten. In particular, the participant of the action Lusine Sargsyan mentioned that her child was enrolled in a nursery group in 2019, but they have not been called yet. Adding to the problem of enrollment is the fact that the activities of educational institutions conditioned by COVID-19 were limited and incomplete, and this was the reason why many children were deprived of the opportunity to attend kindergarten.

The mayor’s spokesman Hakob Karapetyan, who approached the protesters, said that the municipality is taking steps to add additional places and groups in the kindergartens.

Karapetyan’s reaction did not satisfy the parents. They mentioned that they had heard such answers a lot, but no concrete steps had been taken. Not all parents are able to send their children to a private kindergarten, and they have to wait for years for state admission.

PS The day after the protest, on February 9, the newly appointed Deputy Mayor Gayane Melkom Melkomyan made a statement on her Facebook page detailing the forthcoming expectations for re-admission to pre-school educational institutions.

Full text in Armenian