Teachers did not allow new principal to enter school building
The teaching staff of Special School N17 closed the doors of the building this afternoon disallowing Ashot Arshakyan, Head of the General Education Department at the Ministry of Education and Science, and Vergine Yesayan, the new principal of the school, from entering the premises, Noyem Khachatryan, one of the teachers of the school, told A1+ Company. In this way, the teachers show their disapproval of the new principal who, they say, was appointed illegally. “First we talked to them through a window and then we went out. The ministry official said we had no right to close the doors before them and they would enter anyway. We replied that the acting director was in hospital and it was not polite to introduce the new director in her absence. Ashot Arshakyan suggested that the deputy principal could act as an acting principal after receiving an authority from the Ministry to introduce the new principal to the staff. We refused the offer,” Noyem Khachatryan said. The teachers demand that the new principal be appointed in accordance with the applicable laws. Four contests for the vacant position have been announced since January 2017, but they have been cancelled every time for different reasons: either the Ministry’s representative was unwell and could not come, or three of the eight-member commission were absent. As a result, Minister of Science and Education Levon Mkrtchyan decided to appoint the new principal alone. Before leaving the area, Ashot Arshakyan and Vergine Yesayan said if the protest continued, next time they would return with law enforcement agencies.
