UN EDUCATION SUB-WORKING GROUP MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, 18 November 2020 11:00 11:45 VENUE: Yerevan, ARMENIA (via Zoom) Participating organizations: 15 participants from UN agencies, international organizations and international/local NGOs (see – attached Participants list) attended the fourth meeting of the Education Sub-Working Group. Meeting agenda: • Updates on the dynamics of the movement of displaced population of NKunder the new reality and current situation in the shelters. • Updates on the activities in ensuring access and continuance of education of student spontaneously arrived from NKR; • Discussion on future actions. • UNICEF (Avlard Poghosyan, Maya Simonyan) o Informed, that by the end of the week the delivery of 3000 school bags with stationary items to the Government requested municipalities will be completed and the list of municipalities and the numbers of delivered kits will be shared with group members; o Besides school bags, on 19th of November 100 tablets will be delivered to Syunik marzpetaran for the distribution to school of Goris, Sisian and Kapan municipalities, who are hosting students from NK to support distance learning of students from NKR; o Informed group members, that considering the needs, 2000 new school kits will be procured for the distribution to marzpetarans; o Notified that, there is a contract with “Step by Step” foundation on the establishment of early learning corners in 11 shelters (the list of the shelters also will be shared with the group members for coordination of efforts); o On the proposal of International Red cross advised that the school kits distribution organized through municipalities asking them to provide filled reporting form and tablets through marzpetaran again asking to provide the names of school and the numbers of tablets distribute the respective schools; o Responding on the issue of children with special educational needs, informed that UNICEF sent contract to Republican psychological-pedagogical centre to ensure the intensification of their work on that regard; o Informed, that UNICEF is in the negotiation with “Hope” project topping up their activities on the establishment of early learning corners and will provide some equipment on this regard in line with the guidance of teachers or coordinators. • UNICEF (Maya Simonyan) o Notified that, UNICEF is in the process of signing contract with local organizations of people with disabilities to provide services to arrive people with special needs located in Yerevan and regions. 1 • International committee of Red cross (Grigori Hovhannisyan) o Updated, that they also procured tablets and most probably will distribute to Armavir and Aragatsotn marzes, as they received some signals, that, in terms of support, the abovementioned regions are out of the proper attention. o Pointed out the importance of monitoring the conditions of school, which are currently serving as shelters and possibility to return to school modality. • The Armenian red cross society (Nazeli Kirakosyan) o Informed that they are in the process of procurement of 300 tablets and they will directly distribute tablets to the children from NK in the shelters where they are doing learning activities aimed of raising resilience. • Save the children o Informed that they have reports of military occupation of schools and kindergartens in Syunik region and raised concerns on the schools’ conditions in southern regions for reopening them for face to face learnings and proposed to have advocacy for the ministry and municipalities on this issue and agreed to share the reports and list of these schools. o Informed that they are in negotiation with local partners in Kotayq and Gegharkunik regions to establish corners for the organization of nonformal education for children and psychosocial supports for caregivers. • UN (Arevik Anaposyan) o Updated on the education issues from the visits to 14 shelters where project “Hope” implement activities: the main problems for distance learning are tablets and access to internet. o Raised issue, that in shelters of Taron district in Vanadzor municipality there are children with special educational neds and they have never received any kind of professional or phyco-emotional support and this situation increases the number of children, who are out of school. o Informed that project “Hope” developed comprehensive nonformal education curricular and proposed to have a presentation on that. • Kasa Swiss Humantarian foundation (Zara Lavchyan) o Highlighted the importance of informal education and extracurricular activities for the children in shelters to return to the normal life and also mentioned that they also received signals, that spontaneously arrived people in Armavir, Aragatsotn, Korayq and Ararat marzes are somehow left out from spotlight․ • Open society foundation (Anahit Galikyan) o Notified, that “For equal rights” organization also organizes different informal education activities (art and craft, storytelling, human right) in shelters of Syunik and Gegharkunik regions. o Informed, that based on their previous similar experience and in the coordination with the MoESCS, they are planning to develop programs and to support to assess the needs of students and fill the gap in knowledge from different subject, but there is no official response from the Ministry yet. 2 What was agreed: ➢ Invite project “Hope” to deliver presentation on their curricular of nonformal education. ➢ Invite a representative from the Ministry of Education to participate in education SWG to understand the Ministry’s vision, strategy, needs and work on that direction. ➢ To monitor the dynamic movement of people spontaneously arrived from NK and to respond and shape the activities respectively. ➢ Jointly ensure the provision of formal and nonformal education for students from NK. ➢ Monitor the situation of schools and kindergartens being used for military purposes and as shelters and assess the need of their rearrangements for safety of students and possibility of opening them for face to face educational modalities. UNICEF Armenia 20 November 2020 3 Participants list Alvard Poghosyan Education specialist (UNICEF) Naira Avetisyan Emergency officer on CP, MHPSS related issues (UNICEF Ukraine) Margaw Wetterwald Emergency officer on emergency response (UNICEF Ukraine) Maya Simonyan ECD Officer (UNICEF) Anahit Galikyan Education program coordinator (OSF), Anna Barfyan Youth program coordinator (UNFPA), Anush Shahverdyan Education programs (World bank), Anoush Davtyan Consultant (UNICEF), Arevik Anaposyan Development finance and partnership adviser (UN), Anmari Swi Regional Emergency adviser (UNICEF), Grigori Hovhannisyan Education programs manager (International committee of Red cross), Karen Khachatryan Senior community protection officer (UNHSR) Irina Soghoyan Save the Children Nazeli Kirakosyan Head of organizational development (The Armenian red cross society), Zara Lavchyan Kasa Swiss Humantarian foundation Hermine Katvalyan Program assistant (UNICEF) 4 .