School has no headmasters
High school N 5 after Gorky in Etchmiadzin is introducing the institute of social pedagogy as an experimental program. This year, the 10th grade students of the high school were greeted by social pedagogues instead of the conventional headmasters.
School Principal Gayane Safaryan places importance on educational reforms and indicates the issue of socialization in high schools.
"The students come from different schools, and there really was a need for replacing the institute of headmaster with a new one. We are trying to find the path through social pedagogy," the school's principal says.
Arusyak Safaryan is one of the school's social pedagogues. She was the one that introduced this model and has been working in this sphere for the past 10 years. Teaching in the Department of Social Work at Yerevan State University, she notices issues with students just entering the university.
"They aren't ready to live independently. Here is where the idea of social pedagogy came up. We need to start working with students more in school so that they are ready to enter the real world later on," Arusyak Safaryan says.
Safaryan has created by Armenian model of social pedagogy by studying the European and American ones.
"I am against taking something foreign and not adapting it. In this sense, there is no foreign influence. We have created a new model for our environment by simply using some elements," she says.
The school principal mentions that there are many issues related to theprogram.
"We face issues with the students who have come from other schools and remember their headmasters, teachers who have worked in a different ways, as well as a social issue. We have to show a professional approach to all these issues," she explains.
Gayane Safaryan also mentions that the program still has to be approved.
"We're not doing this to show off. I try to solve the issues facing the school this way, and I have ll the rights to do that. I have hired a social pedagogue to do the work of six headmasters, and I will hire another one next year. After all, not all experts have God-given abilities to work as psychologists and to organize," Gayane Safaryan says.
There are 400 children enrolled at the school.
