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On July 18, on the initiative of the RA NA President Ara Babloyan the RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, the RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mane Tandilyan and the RA Minister of Health Care visited N 92 Inclusive Kindergarten of Malatia-Sebastia Administrative District.

The Head of the legislative body and the representatives of the government took a tour in the kindergarten, got acquainted with the conditions and talked with the children and the specialists.

The kindergarten opened its doors for the children with disabilities and development with a new model of the inclusive education for the first time in Armenia in 2015. The reconstruction of the kindergarten and its adjustment for the children with special need of education was implemented with the joint efforts of the state, Yerevan Municipality and the charity funds. All the conditions are created there for the meeting the health care, social and educational needs.

The kindergarten accepted 42 children needing special conditions for the education: with the problems of light, average and hard development. Before entering the kindergarten the children up to 3 years pass early revelation and intervention phases of development disorders in the frameworks of the programme of the Ministry of Healthcare in the N 9 Children’s Polyclinics. The three-year old children, who by the assessment of the doctor and the pedagogical-psychological team can immediately be involved in the groups, go to six groups functioning in the kindergarten. The children, who cannot be immediately involved in the groups, taking into consideration the special needs and the weight of the disorders, go to the preparatory groups functioning in the kindergarten, with whom special pedagogues, their assistants and multi-specialized team work. During that period the children continue getting necessary services, live in the regime of the kindergarten and together with the children of their age take part in the studies of physical training, singing and the neighbourhood classes.

Ara Babloyan has noted that the goal of the visit to get acquainted with the model of multi-functional kindergarten. According to him, the example of the kindergarten documents that we can have the best results in early revelation and intervention of the disability, if there is inter-departmental cooperation in the social, health care and educational spheres with the active participation of the community bodies. On the other hand, the Head of the legislative body has underlined that the model is family-centred, as in that case the children with the problems of development continue remaining and living in their families.

Highlighting the activities of N 92 Kindergarten, the Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan has noted that it is a pre-school inclusive education model which has a positive impact on the future of the children with special needs in terms of the development of the life skills. According to the Minister, an attempt should be made to apply that model in schools. He has noted that discussions will be organized on the investment of a similar kindergarten jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Affairs.

The RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mane Tandilyan touched upon the problems existing in the system of the inclusive education, noting that for him the priority is to get familiarized with the sphere and raise the problems. In this issue the Minister emphasized the elaboration of the departmental general agenda between the Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs, of Education and Science and of Healthcare.

Regarding the problems of children with disabilities, the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan highlighted the specialists’ work especially among the children of pre-school age. He highly assessed Ara Babloyan’s consistent work in raising the problems of the sphere and proposing solutions.

During the talk with the kindergarten staff Ara Babloyan thanked them, highlighting their responsible work.