906 KINDER-GARTENS ARE FUNCTIONING IN ARMENIA
Armenpress
Aug 15 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS: At present 906 kinder-gartens are
functioning in Armenia, 186 are seasonal. The number of children
attending the kinder-gartens reaches 66,000 which, according to the
leading specialist of pre-school education department at the Armenian
Education and Science Ministry Melsida Sargsian comprises only 20
percent of the number of children of pre-school age.
Kinder-gartens started acting in Armenia from 1920.
The majority of the kinder-gartens are functioning in Yerevan, then
in the province of Gegharkunik and Ararat. Around 448 communities
in Armenia do not have infant schools. Sargsian said that as of
today the most important issue is the existence of multifunctional
kinder-gartens as now in all the kinder-gartens the "stone regime"
of soviet times is dominating.
"We must be able to establish a system according to which the parents
will bring and take their children when they want, the child must
sleep in the kinder-garten as much as he/she wants, sit and run as
he/she wants," she said.
Sargsian also said that in Ararat province and Yerevan there are
such kinder-gartens which are functioning according to the program
developed by the Armenian Education and Science Ministry and UNICEF.
The program also includes "Parents’ Education" program within the
framework of which specialists of the ministry are conducting seminars
with the parents.