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8 Computers for 25 Students: Adequate Facilities but Declining Number of Students in Armenia's Lori Province

The number of students attending schools in Armenia's Lori Province decreases year by year.

Of the villages of Shamut, Ahnidzor, Atan, and Lorut, only Lorut boasts full grades and adequate facilities. The other schools notice a decline in the number of pupils, with some attributing this to the scarcity of young families in the village, most of which move to other villages in Armenia or to other countries.

Students of Shamut's main school are disciplined at a young age: no student here comes with dirty shoes, so that the floor of the school remains clean. At school, the students have separate shoes, which they wear when they enter the building. The number of shoes at the entrance, however, is gradually decreasing.

"15 years ago, when I was admitted to the school, in 1999, there were 56 students. Today, we have 25 students," says the school principal, Eduard Ghazaryan. The drastic decline in the number of students occurred only fairly recently: about 5–6 years ago, there were 48 students in the school. The school has 4 classrooms, 3 of which are split grade classrooms.

Ghazaryan believes the reduction in the number of pupils is tied to the scarcity of young families in the village: he says there are barely 15 young families. "The pupils currently being admitted to the school are mainly the children of the generation that were also few. And the others, boys or girls, get married elsewhere, leave the village, and it turns out that [people of] that generation are few in the village. Well, naturally, the number of children is connected to this." 

The math teacher at the school, Anahit Sahakyan, says there was a time when she taught classes of 15–16 students. Now there are 2–3 students in the classes she teaches, and there's no competition among them. "The conditions of the country force people to leave — some, to the city; most, to Russia, and probably, it seems to me, there are very few students in the city schools as well. There's no ambition in the children, for one to look at another, study well. Competition, it seems to me, is necessary: in the high grades it promotes knowledge, forces the kids to aspire for more. If they see that someone is studying well, if not 10 children, then at least 2–3, they say, why shouldn't we do well like them? And like this, the class becomes more advanced, but in the case of 2 children this doesn't exist."

The school doesn't have a lack of professionals. And the teachers undergo the appropriate training, though it's harder for teachers of split grade classrooms since they're forced to divide a 45-minute lesson between two different grades. There's no lack of equipment either. The principal, partly joking, partly serious, says in terms of the ratio of students to computers, his school would get first place in the country: there are 8 computers for Shamut school's 25 students. The school's annual budget is about 20 million AMD (about $48.5 thousand USD), though the majority of this money — 19 million AMD — is spent on salaries. The rest of the money covers the school's expenses. Once the weather gets warmer, the school's gymnasium will be renovated.

Ghazaryan already knows the number of first graders who will enrol this coming academic year. Shamut's main school will have 5 first graders come September — if, of course, the families of those children don't move out of the village.

The same situation reigns in the schools at Shamut's neighboring villages of Ahnidzor and Atan. However, split grade classrooms, common in remote villages, are surprisingly not necessary in neighboring village Lorut's secondary school. Here, all the grades have their own classrooms: the fourth grade has the fewest number of students (4 students), while the 11th grade has the most (23 students). All the subjects are compulsory and taught at the school. The school is missing only a geography teacher. Until a new teacher is found, geography is taught by a retired teacher so the students are not behind.

Lorut's secondary school principal Davit Sargsyan identifies the collapsed roof of one of the school's buildings as one of the school's main problems. Because of the state of the roof, no classes are held in this building; instead, elementary, middle, and high school students all study at the building for high school students. Because of the cracked roof, the auditorium is not in use, while phys ed classes are held in the gym only when it's severely cold. The remaining months of the year, students take phys ed outdoors in the school's small and large athletic fields.

There are currently 135 students enrolled at the school, 27 of which come from neighboring Atan and Shamut. There is a special bus for the 9 students from Atan, while the students coming from Shamut walk the 3 km to the school. Added to the difficulties of the secondary school education system is the difficulty of going to school from one village to another.

 

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