Disabled children’s integration part of inclusive education plan – minister  

Armenia’s minister of education and science on Friday received a delegation from the Save the Children organization and the Medicor foundation’s Action for Child Health and Education project to address the problems of inclusivity.

Greeting the guests, Levon Mkrtchyan highly praised the organization's long-lasting and effective cooperation with the ministry.

“It is very important that international non-governmental organizations implement consistent and skilled activities in Armenia. The significant work which you carry out to develop pre-school education and expand inclusiveness is an important and promising process which is in harmony with the current education policies,” he said, according to a press release by the Ministry of Education and Science.

The minister noted that despite the Armenian society’s developing understanding of inclusiveness, the trend still needs to be better perceived by certain classes.

“Inclusivity, for many people, is the integration of children with disabilities into schools of general education, whereas universal inclusivity is aimed to secure any kind of integration into the [external] environment,” he said.

Iren Sargsyan, Senior Program Manager at Save the Children Armenia, later briefed the minister on their upcoming activities and planned changes.

She said that they intend to expand the framework of their activities, considering the needs in the education sector. For his part, Minister Mkrtchyan proposed specifying the priorities and trends to promote a better coordination of joint measures.