Ashot and Armen Alikhanyans went to first grade in Teghout village, but after their parents divorced the brothers had to go to different schools in Vanadzor. Ashot is 15, Armen is 11. Their mother Manik said that Ashot displayed some symptoms of mental deficiency and they transferred him a special school. After having finished the first grade in the Teghout school, Ashot was transferred to Vanadzor’s Special School.

According to mother, this decision was conditioned not only by the boy’s indifference to studying, but also by his disposition to stealing. “He is a little thief,” his mother and grandmother told us about Ashot’s habit of stealing. “He stole money both from me and from my mother’s house,” the boy’s grandmother told us. Ashot, who is going to be transferred to the ninth grade, didn’t attend school for four years. The regional administration even took him to Yerevan’s Special School #1, but that didn’t help either. The mother said that the boy didn’t change in the Yerevan school, remaining naughty and disobedient. Not willing to stay in Yerevan, Ashot returned to Vanadzor. This time, he was transferred to Vanadzor’s Center for Special Care, but still everything was in vain. According to his mother and grandmother, the boy stayed there for 15 days, but didn’t want to go to school. Such behavior of the boy is conditioned by the atmosphere in the family as well as by his indifference to any kind of educational activities. The children’s mother divorced seven years ago. So the children live in their mother’s parents’ house without being brought up by their father. “He was an alcoholic,” Manik said about her husband. Now she takes care of her children alone. She cleans the houses of different people and gets some 1000 drams a day, a sum that doesn't even cover her needs. She can’t buy shoes or clothes. Manik doesn’t get any benefits, so the children have to survive thanks to 15000 drams of their grandfather’s salary. In the course of our visit, Ashot was fishing not far from their house. “I don’t go to school, but I’d like to,” the boy said. He told us that he doesn’t want to go the the Center for Special Care, because he often has to quarrel with his classmates. “I am learning the specialty of a mechanic from the neighbour’s sons. He said he didn’t have friends and couldn’t communicate with them. Ashot’s only friend is his brother. “I wish I could go to school. If they don’t quarrel with me, I will not fight them." Manik told us that Ashot can neither write nor read. Her younger son Armen can read and write. “I like mathematics most of all,” 11 year-old Armen told us. He also went into the first grade at the special school. The main reason for such a decision was not  mental deficiency. According to their mother, they just wanted both brothers to study at the same school. Armen also had to miss classes quite frequently because of his brother’s periodical transferring from one school to another. Armen is going to be transferred to the seventh grade. According to the decision of Lori Regional Administration, the boy will be transferred from the special school to the Center for Special Care since  the boy doesn’t display any mental deficiency. Rudik Varosyan, head of Juvenile Deliquency Department at RoA Police in Vanadzor, knows the Alikhanyan brothers very well. According to Varosyan, Ashot had committed several thefts. He added that there was a criminal case instituted against the boy.The case is under investigation now. According to official statistics, there are 28 children who don't attend school in Lori. Most of them are from villages. Narek Sargsyan, head of Children’s Rights Department at Lory’s Regional Administration, said that in the villages this issue is conditioned mainly by the children’s participation in the rural works. “In the cities, the children are left out of the school because of their poor families, while in the villages they have to work in the fields,” Narek Sargsyan said. In the cities, most of the children who don’t attend schools are orphans and often violate the law. Narek Sargsyan said that their department and the police try to combine their forces and bring the children back to school, rendering assistance to their families. According to him they recently managed to return three children to school and supported them. “We appoint a social teacher for mainly single mothers, for the convicted or for orphans,” he said. Sargsyan brought the example of a Rehabilitation Center at one of Vanadzor’s school. The Center was opened in collaboration with the city’s police department. The specialists at the center work with the children who violated laws and were left out of the schools due to some reasons and try to return them to school. “Crossed Roads”, a Vanadzor based NGO also renders psychological assistance and carries out the rehabilitation of such children. “Only those children who are left to fend for themselves at home may fall under bad influence,” Narek Sargsyan said. He said that in the near future, in collaboration with the relevant police department, they are going to accumulate data on the children left out of schools and juvenile delinquents for creating an individual system of methods aimed to the solution of each child’s problems. “They can’t do without studying and they can’t do without going to school. If only Ashot could learn some craft to earn his bread, but he doesn’t even want to go to school. He went to school, and then he left it. School was like a game to him that he got disappointed in,” Manik, mother of the Alikhanyan brothers, underscored.