On August 10th, the Commandant’s Office of the state of emergency decided to reopen public schools, institutions of primary and secondary vocational education, music schools, and fine arts schools on September 15th while making sure to maintain the standards for education as well as sanitary and hygienic norms.
Active discussions began surrounding this issue. Most people are pleased with the decision, but there are also people against it. Parents are worried about their children’s health. “We have grown tired of these decisions. The numbers are dropping, but the virus continues to spread throughout the world. It is not subsiding. The second wave has even started, but we’re going to send our children to school. How are elementary school children expected to maintain sanitary norms? How is a child supposed to understand what a virus is? If this situation continues, I will not send my child to school,” Ashkhen Arakelyan said in an interview.
Narine Hovsepyan, who has two schoolchildren, is pleased with the decision because one of her children will start first grade this year. Narine said that it was difficult to carry out classes online for one semester. She was scared that the commandant would determine that the next semester also needed to take place online.
“I will not deny that my children progressed as a result of distance learning because I was very consistent. I knew and saw how they did classes, what homework they got, and everything else, but my two children were sitting in front of the computer all day. They couldn’t even move around at home comfortably because they needed to stay quiet throughout the whole class,” Narine Hovsepyan said.
Read also
According to Narine, children need to become aware of hygienic norms at home and realize that it’s for their safety.
Julieta Hovsepyan
