Iravaban.net  received an alert from a parent of one of the pupils of Yerevan  Basic School #11 named after Monte Melkonyan, regarding the collection of money that takes place at the school, making the children to clean the class spaces before and after classes.

The whistleblower stated that his child has been studying at that school for 4 years, and the same problem has been present for 4 years. She did not want her name to be published because she was afraid that there could be negative consequences for her child later.

She mentioned that collection of money is mainly done by the decision of the form-teacher and the parents’ committee. “I have 3 children, it makes no sense to give so much money to the school, if so, I will send them to a paid school. It makes from 100,000 to 150,000 drams a month and it’s meaningless.”

According to the information given by the whistleblower, they collected 3000 drams each for the form-teacher’s birthday, other cases of fundraising were for the principal, deputy principal, and teachers of various subjects.  According to her, “there are a lot of such cases, it’s not like it happens once or twice. We collect money half of the month.”

Another problem in the school is the assignments given to the students regarding the cleanliness of the classroom, in particular, the students are told “come early in the morning to clean the tables, leave late after school to clean the classrooms”.

“Isn’t there a so called cleaning lady that the child should do this?” Yes, I agree, it’s a child, let him clean his table, but why the whole class, isn’t there a cleaning lady?” our interlocutor noted.

The whistleblower also said that they never spoke about the problem for so long, they just wanted to talk about it, and the parents thought it was a shame.

When asked about the quality of education, our interlocutor answered that a child receives high marks if he/she pays extra money and attends private lessons. “Specifically, this month I took my child out of private lessons. If the teacher works with my child, I pay a separate amount for it, and my child ‘gets high marks’, but my child does not learn anything, but the teacher puts high marks.”

She says that now when the does not go to private lessons, the teacher has changed the attitude towards him. The last collection of money was organized for 8 March. 2000 drams were required from each child.

Iravaban.net has been trying to contact the director of the school for about 10 days in order to clarify the circulating news and the problem. The provided phone number answered only a few times. When the communicator learns that a journalist was calling, they asked to provide a number for a call back, because the director was not in place. The school never contacted the editorial office.

Iravaban.net tried to contact the principal of the school both in the morning and in the afternoon, as well as during breaks. On the days when the school answered our calls, it was noted that the principal was not at school.

Mariam Shahnazaryan