HY RU EN
Asset 3

Loading

End of content No more pages to load

Your search did not match any articles

Aghavni Eghiazaryan

Villagers dream of a new school

"My only dream is to see a school in Salvard; then I can die in peace. That's it, that's all I want," says Armik Asatryan, a math teacher in the village for fifty-four years.

The village of Salvard in the Syunik Marz was founded in 1928-1929, by settlers from the province of Khoy in Persia . They named the village Salvard, after the slope on which it was located. Today, the village has 464 residents, who raise cattle, keep bees, and farm the land. Each family has at least five or six cows.

Salvard is thirteen kilometers away from the Nakhchivan border. "During the Artsakh war, sixty-seven volunteers from our village went to fight in Karabakh, and none of them was killed," says one of the village elders proudly.

The villagers have traditionally enjoyed good relations with the neighboring Azerbaijani border village of Gyumri (once populated by Armenians). "Even now if a cow or other animal crosses the border, they send it right back. We have always gotten along with each other, but now there is a kind of fear in our hearts," Armik Asatryan notes.

A school was founded in Salvard in 1952. "It was small but it was a school. When you went into the classrooms, you felt you had entered a school. By the 1980s it was falling down; either it had to be completely renovated or a new school had to be built," the teacher continues.

In 1991 the government tore down the old schoolhouse and started building a new one. "It would have taken a few month to build the school, but the regime changed and everything got mixed up. The new school has never been built," a villager says with regret. That September, the students went to what was to be a "temporary school" - small classrooms set up village administration building. Children have been studying in those dilapidated classrooms for fourteen years now.

This year the Salvard school has seventy-four students. "Everything is like an ordinary school, except for the building and the classrooms. We have nine teachers; the schooling process is properly organized. The largest class has thirteen or fourteen students. We have seven classrooms, but none of them is properly equipped. It's just very inconvenient - the school, the club, and the village administration all sharing the same building," says head teacher Laura Asatryan.

Everyone-the Ministry of Education, the Syunik Marzpet's Office, the local MPs-know that the village needs a schoolhouse. "I have been the village mayor for seven years now. What can I do?" asks Mayor Beniamin Ivanyan. "We haven't been able to build a school. We have presented a cost estimates and other documents to the Marzpet's Office several times. We applied in writing to the former and present marzpet, to the former and present parliament member from our constituency, but there have been no results. During the election campaign, our MP promised that the schoolhouse would be built, but nothing has been done; we're still waiting."

After numerous written and oral requests, the mayor received a letter from the Marzpet's Office in 2002, advising villagers to somehow cope with the situation and make sure that the students have classrooms. In order do to so, an additional three classrooms were set up in the assembly hall of the village administration building.

After graduating from the eighth grade, the students transfer to school in Sisian (the administrative center of the Syunik Mars). "Three graduates from our school were admitted to university this year. We are proud of them, but we also have to provide at least minimum conditions for their schooling. They should have classrooms for their lessons," says Profik Shamirian, who teaches Armenian language and literature. Villagers complain that they are ignored by the government. "We live in a border area. We are important for the defense of Armenia , but nobody is interested in us. Nobody visits us to find out how we live, what problems we have," they say.

There are serious problems with the drinking water in Sirvard as well. Drinking water from the three sources supplying the village contains sand and dirt. "There are other things in it, too, but so far no one has gotten sick. God forbid, if something happens, at least we know that we have our nurse with us until we get to Sisian," a villager says.

A few years ago the NGO Apaven opened a first-aid post in Salvard, villagers are happy in the knowledge that should an emergency arise, they have a caring nurse by their side.

Winter lasts seven months a year in Salvard. Compared to neighboring villages, the road leading to Salvard is in fairly good condition. "In winter we stay in the village, what else can we do? We heat our houses with dung and firewood. Mainly dung, since it's hard to buy wood," they say.

People in Salvard learn about what is going on in the world from the state-run Public Television of Armenia. They complain that they never hear anything about their village or their marz.

"Its school and its church are what make a village a village," says "Auntie" Profik. "A school is simply a necessity, if we want to keep younger people in this border area."

Write a comment

If you found a typo you can notify us by selecting the text area and pressing CTRL+Enter