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Mariam and Adrine (not their real names) are alumni of one of Yerevan\u2019s special schools. The school is called \u201cspecial\u201d because only children with intellectual disabilities study there. \u201cNo matter how many stories I tell, you won\u2019t understand what it means to carry the label of that school,\u201d says Mariam.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI remember, I was 15 years old and I could understand many things around me. One day we took the bus with a school friend of mine and a boy was staring at me. After a while, our teacher turned to that boy and said, \u201cDon\u2019t stare at her, she is from the \u2018idiot\u2019s school\u2019,\u201d recounts Mariam.<\/p>\n
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Adrine also felt depressed at the special school and twice tried to run away from the school. \u201cChildren in our class had different intellectual disabilities. I don\u2019t think it was correct to gather us all together. I didn\u2019t like that school. I wish I could have gone to a regular school. Children in the regular schools are also different, some are clever, others are not, but neither the teachers nor the other students call them stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Adrine believes that children with intellectual disabilities could study better at a regular mainstream school. She says, \u201cWhen do people study well? When they have an example, when they can see a role model among their classmates. We had a number of children in our classroom who were capable and had the potential to study well, but to the teachers all the students seemed the same, and they did not teach well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mariam knows that society has a negative attitude towards students of special schools. \u201cWhen people find out that you attended a special school, they immediately think that you are abnormal or insane, and that you don\u2019t understand anything. People called us idiots so many times that we even started to believe that it was true.\u201d<\/p>\n
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After graduation, the girls faced new challenges. Mariam couldn\u2019t find her place in life; at first some friends arranged employment for her at a night club, after that she went to Russia, and now she temporarily lives with her sister. Adrine got married and divorced, and now she works at a beauty salon as a manicurist.<\/p>\n
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There are currently 23 functioning special educational institutions in Armenia, where about 2300 children were enrolled during the 2013-2014 school year. Of those 23 special schools, 15 of them are especially for children with intellectual disabilities.<\/p>\n
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