Recently the solemn opening ceremony of a newly equipped computer classroom was held at Nar-Dos School N 14 in Yerevan, which has nearly 100 Syrian-Armenian students who moved to Armenia as a result of the civil war in Syria. Among the participants of the opening of the classroom equipped through funding provided by the State of Kuwait were RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Kuwait to Armenia Bassam Mohammad Al-Qabandi and Head of the Department of General Education at Yerevan Municipality Gayane Soghomonyan.

In an interview with “Hayern Aysor”, the school’s Principal Arusyak Barseghyan talked fondly about the Syrian-Armenian children and said they have easily adapted to the environment, are on good terms with the students in Armenia, don’t cause any problems and stand out with their discipline.

According to the principal, in the beginning, the Syrian-Armenian children were tense, but now they have peace of mind and attend the classes with pleasure. This is due to the generosity of the principal and the teachers.

Thanks to the teachers’ daily and heartfelt efforts, the Syrian-Armenian children have no trouble learning Eastern Armenian. Their fellow students of Armenia don’t discriminate and are friendly with them. Arusyak Barseghyan said that as she visits the classrooms, she notices how the Syrian-Armenian children ask the teachers to not distinguish them as Syrian-Armenians, but accept them as citizens and students of the Republic of Armenia. Of course, this goes to show that the children don’t feel like foreigners here and are have fully adapted to the Armenian environment.

The main difficulties for the children are the Russian language classes, but thanks to their diligence, they try to master the language. Syrian-Armenians stand out with their knowledge of math. There are even two Syrian-Armenian students who have participated in the Kangaroo International Math Contest, including 2^nd grade student Lilit Doshoghlalian (2^nd place) and 3^rd grade student Sako Bazarjian, who received a special prize.

The school has extracurricular clubs that have active Syrian-Armenian members. By the proposal of RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Syrian-Armenian students have been taking advanced Arabic language courses for the second consecutive year. This year, by the decision of RA Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan, the school’s first grade students learn Arabic for two hours a week.

Mrs. Barseghyan stressed the fact that the Syrian-Armenian students are in the school’s focus. The school solves their urgent issues and does everything it can to make sure they feel good at school.

In the end, the school principal expressed her deep gratitude to RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Kuwait to Armenia Bassam Mohammad Al-Qabandi for the opening of the computer classroom equipped through funding provided by the State of Kuwait. According to the principal, the students will attend the computer classes and will learn more with pleasure in such a state-of-the-art classroom.

In closing, Mrs. Barseghyan mentioned that the Syrian-Armenian children were very excited about the solemn opening ceremony as they recited poems and performed songs in Arabic and Armenian and received warm rounds of applause from the audience.

Let us add that the assistance was provided as part of the Program for Support to the Solution to Key Educational Issues Facing Syrian-Armenians in Armenia, in accordance with the memorandum signed by the Center for Coordination of Syrian-Armenians’ Issues NGO and the Embassy of the State of Kuwait in Armenia under the initiative of the RA Ministry of Diaspora on September 27, 2013.

By Gevorg Chichyan