Armenian official on integration problems of forcibly displaced  children from Artsakh 

ArmInfo. Summing up the work done, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (MONKS) Araksiya Svadjyan touched upon the existing difficulties in involving forcibly displaced children from Artsakh in the educational process and outlined the steps aimed at overcoming them. The Deputy Minister reported this at the final event at the UN Office in Armenia, within the framework of the program "Involvement of children forcibly displaced from Nagorno- Karabakh in the educational process through increasing their psychosocial resilience".

According to her, the main goal of the event was to ensure the  unimpeded integration of children from Nagorno-Karabakh into the educational process through increasing their psychosocial resilience.

"As part of the program, 6,834 teachers and 690 psychologists from 632 educational institutions were trained. About 37,920 students took part in the courses, and a total of 654 courses were conducted," the deputy minister said. 

In this regard, Svadzhyan also emphasized that starting in 2024, mandatory positions of psychologists will be introduced in general education institutions, which will allow all students to receive the necessary psychological support.

In turn, Acting Representative of the UNICEF Yerevan Office, Silvia Mestroni, noted that UNICEF, together with the Republican Pedagogical and Psychological Center and the UN Children's Fund, has developed the first conceptual document on mental health and psychosocial support in education. If approved, the service will be implemented in all schools in accordance with the established standards.

During the first part of the event, the manual "Improving the  Psychosocial Resilience of Children" was also presented, and in the second part, a panel discussion on "Mental Health and Psychosocial Support" was held, where the projects implemented by the Ministry and upcoming programs in Yerevan schools and in the regions were demonstrated.

According to the source, the program was implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia, the Republican Psychological and Pedagogical Center, UNESCO and UNICEF.

On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan, under the pretext of an  "anti-terrorist operation", committed another act of aggression  against Artsakh. This was preceded by a nearly 10-month blockade of the unrecognized republic. Since the enemy aggression that began in the fall of 2020, which in September 2023 ended in the complete ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, over 150 thousand Artsakh residents have lost their homeland and become refugees.