Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan today stated that his office is willing and ready to allocate funds to needy families for the purchase of school supplies for their children. He did not odder specifics as to how this procedure would be implemented.

Mayor Karapetyan also stated that the tradition of schools collecting money from parents of enrolled children must be made voluntary and not by way of social pressure. Often, parents feel obliged to chip in money, not knowing where it winds up, lest they and their kids are stigmatized by the school administration.

Here too, Mayor Karapetyan did not offer suggestions as to how this long standing custom could be made voluntary.