On April
13, 2021, the Office of the Human Rights Defender paid an unannounced
monitoring visit to Yerevan Special School No. 11.
Among
the issues registered during the visit are:
• According to the information of the school,
under the new coronavirus (COVID-19) conditions, 14 children were left without
education during distance learning (85 children attended school at the time of
the visit). According to the school administration, the main reason for this
issue is the lack of Internet access and telecommunications for children.
The school informed in writing the Ministry of
Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Armenia in writing about this in June
2020, and suggested to complete the unfinished materials at school during the
new academic year.
In
November 2020, the school applied to the Ministry again, offering to switch to
in-person learning, as distance learning is not effective for school children.
In particular, according to the information of the school, the distance
learning website heravar.armedu.am
does not take into account the educational needs of children with moderate to
severe mental issues. There are no available, accessible and educational,
teaching-methodological materials according to their needs. The offer to move
to the in-person education was based on the fact that the children are at
school around-the-clock and do not use public transport
According
to the Office of the Human Rights Defender, the Ministry did not respond to the
mentioned letters from the school.
• The
team of professionals working in the school, including special educators, is
not enough to properly guarantee the children's right to education. Thus, as of
the day of the visit, the special educational needs of 85 children studying in
the school were provided by 1 musician-supervisor, 2 psychologists, 1 social
pedagogue, 2 special pedagogues, 1 speech therapist and 1 instructor of
therapeutic physical culture. The governesses participate in the organizing of
the child care as well.
Private
interviews with school staff and children show that the professionals working
at the school do not have time to properly perform their functions
There
are cases, when a specialist working with one class has to help a specialist
teaching in another class simultaneously, because the latter does not manage to
provide the educational needs of the children alone or is not able to lead the
class due to behavioral disorders. Such cases were also registered during the
monitoring of the Office of the Defender.
One
of the reasons is that the positions of school specialists, especially that of
special pedagogues, are few, and the position of teacher’s assistant is not
provided for at all for special schools by state standards. This is a systemic
problem, it has a negative impact on guaranteeing the rights of children and
employees. Meanwhile, with the addition of specialists, it is possible to show
an individual approach to each child, identifying opportunities for their
development and real needs, and increasing the efficiency of their right to
education;
• training
for employees is not efficient in terms of satisfying the real needs of the
school and children.
The
issue is that the trainings are mainly carried out on the basis of the
standards and programs of the public educational institutions, which does not
always correspond to the needs of the special educational institutions. As a
result, many issues and problems are not solved during the trainings. This is
evidenced by private conversations with the school staff and the discussions
with the administration.
• During
the visit, the representatives of the Office of Human Rights Defender conducted
lectures and private interviews by sampling method with children and
specialists working at the school, studied examples of lesson plans, the
children's individual curricula, the personal files and
pedagogical-psychological conclusions, and educational materials.
As a
result of this study, it revealed that the medical-psychological-pedagogical
assessment of not all the observed children corresponds to their real
educational needs and development opportunities
There have been cases when children with
particularly severe mental health problems were not involved in the teaching
process. There are cases when the developmental opportunities of individual
children are obviously not used efficiently, and the suggested exercises are an
end in themselves, and are implemented just to keep the children busy and
engaged.
For
example, the letter recognition capability of a child with mild developmental
disabilities is limited to 12 letters, according to documented records.
Meanwhile,
according to the representatives of the Office of the Human Rights Defender,
including the psychologist, that same child obviously had more abilities and
capacities. Namely, in the observed cases, the children's right to education is
not efficiently guaranteed. In this case, the educational needs of individual
children must be re-evaluated in order to ensure their right to education is in
accordance with the most targeted and real needs:
• cases
were recorded when the children attended schools mainly because of the social
status of their families and according to the assessment of the specialists of
the Office of the Human Rights Defender do not have an educational need to
attend that school. That is, there are cases when the family, while in a
difficult life situation and not being able to take care of the minimum vital needs
of the child, chooses a special school for realizing their education and
organizing their care. This is also evidenced by the private interviews with
the children and school staff. Meanwhile, the state should ensure the real and
effective assessment of children’s educational needs, as well as introduce
projects promoting the social stability of families in order to exclude cases
of enrollment in special schools for social reasons;
• during
the visit, expired medication was recorded (“No-Spa” hydrochloride 40 mg -
expiration date until March 2021, “Metoclopramide” 2 ml - expiration date until
December 2020). Although according to the medical staff they are not used,
however, the possession of expired medicine is impermissible in general. This is
especially the case when they are stored in unlocked drawers with other medication
within the expiry date;
• the
medication, including psychotropic drugs, are provided to children after the
oral notification of their parents and without a prescription. This practice
should be excluded.
the
types of medication, the doctor’s instruction and the prescription of
medication provided to the child should be always certified when it is
compulsory;
• according
to the medical staff, annual seasonal flu vaccination is conducted, about which
the parents of the child are notified in advance and provide their verbal
consent.
The
mentioned is not recorded in a written way. It becomes apparent that when it is
impossible to contact the parents, it's impossible to oversee whether the
voluntary character of vaccination and informed consent are ensured. Meanwhile,
seasonal flu vaccination within the risk groups are organized and carried out
on a voluntary basis.
The
mentioned is an impermissible practice from the perspective of effective
oversight over the vaccination process. This should be principally ruled out
especially because the child’s legal representatives are not always present;
• the
toothpaste kept in storage area, as well as the ones used during the day of the
visit, were expired;
• sufficient
sanitary-hygienic conditions are not secured in the storage area. For example,
there was a very little distance between the groceries (that was kept open) and
the arsenic. The mentioned is problematic in terms that there may be cases when
a hazardous toxic substance may accidentally appear in the food bags. At the
time of the visit, a substance with reddish granules was recorded, that on the
resembled arsenic spilled on the floor. This was recorded by the representative
of the Defender and immediately removed;
• beddings
and a part of the personal cloths, including the underwear, are shared among
the children. Moreover, according to the staff of the school, children can
share the same cloths after laundry. This is unacceptable, not only from sanitary-hygienic
point of view, but also from the point of view of the respect of the dignity
and the private life of the child;
• the butter and the meat is kept unpackaged.
In this case, the required conditions for foot storage are not kept.
• The
frequency of providing dairy products and fish is not upheld in the menu,
• the
remuneration of the staff of the school does not correspond to the amount of
work that is required by them.
Some
of the mentioned issues are systemic in nature, an in order to solve them, the
state is obliged to take urgent and effective steps, which will truly guarantee
the rights of the children, including the full realization of the right to
education. The existing issues, including the provision of the required
educational materials are solved through the good faith of the staff of the
school.
The results of the monitoring activity are
being summarized, and the recorded issues, together with the recommendations
will be sent to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports, and
the Director of the school.
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