The Head of the Education Inspectorate of the Republic of Armenia, Mr. Vagharshak Matikyan, and his deputies Ms Raisa Galstyan and Mr. Arsen Baghdasaryan received the staff of the “Lusastgh” NGO.

Mr. Vagharshak Matikyan welcomed the representatives of the organization and got acquainted with the activities of the NGO with interest. The President of the organization, Ms Ani Gabrielyan, presented the “Universal Inclusion 2: From Budget to Policy” project, emphasizing that it is being implemented with the financial support of the European Union within the framework of the “Budgets for Citizens” action of the consortium formed under the leadership of the “Armenian Lawyers Association”.

According to Ani Gabrielyan, the objective of the project is to contribute to the development and establishment of an inclusive education system in Armenia through advocacy. An important component of the project is the introduction of a civic oversight and feedback tool, which will enable beneficiaries – the children, parents, teachers and guardians – to record existing problems in the field, and enable the policymakers to respond those problems in a timely manner.

Vice President of the organization Ms Arpine Serobyan presented the simplified budget based on the distribution of state funds provided for inclusive education in general schools and the assessment of their effectiveness, as well as the advocacy action plan implemented within the framework of the project. Young expert Mr. Levon Soghomonyan provided observations on the process of inclusive education in preschool institutions.

Vagharshak Matikyan highly appreciated the work of the “Lusastgh” NGO and noted:
“You are doing a commendable work. We can cooperate in organizing the work carried out in the field of inclusive education and in forming mechanisms for their verification.”

According to the agreement reached, the staff of the “Lusastgh” NGO will develop an assessment checklist to be used at the end of the academic year, through which the opinions of parents of children with disabilities, school teachers and the staff of the TPPSC (Territorial Pedagogical-Psychological Support Center) will be collected. The checklist is intended for use by Education Inspection authorities.

This publication has been developed with the financial support of the European Union, within the framework of a sub-grant provided under the “Budgets for Citizens” project implemented by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with partners “Economic Development and Research Center” (EDRC) NGO and “Agora Central Europe” NGO (Czech Republic). It has been implemented by “Lusastgh” NGO within the framework of the “Universal Inclusion 2: From Budget to Policy” project. The “Lusastgh” NGO is responsible for the content, and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.