On June 1, International Children’s Day, the Yerevan Municipality decided to distribute books to some children in community kindergartens, but not to all.

Parents viewed the decision as unfair.

Several parents told Hetq that the municipality had chosen not to give books to every child attending kindergarten. They said the issue was not the gift itself, but the unequal and non-inclusive way it was distributed. In their view, such an approach was especially inappropriate on Children’s Day.

Hetq asked the municipality why it used a differentiated approach, what criteria guided the distribution, how many books the kindergartens received, and how much was spent on the purchase. We also asked whether the municipality had discriminated against children who did not receive books.

The Yerevan Municipality did not answer all our questions.

According to the municipality, prior to International Children’s Day, its Department of General Education distributed about 20,000 books, provided by the Department of Culture, to all kindergartens under community jurisdiction.

“Given the limited number of books and the need to narrow the group of beneficiaries, the decision was made to give them to children in the ‘junior 2nd,’ ‘middle,’ and ‘early’ age groups attending kindergartens,” the municipality said.

The municipality did not respond to our remaining questions.

According to the municipality’s Kindergarten management system, Yerevan has 162 community-run kindergartens. Of these, twelve are under renovation or reconstruction, and work at two others has been suspended. The same source says 28,855 children currently attend operating kindergartens.

Photo: Agata Nowicka/aarp.org