YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, NOYAN TAPAN. 900 pre-school institutions function in Armenia at present. 225 of them are in Yerevan. 66 thousand children are involved in those institutions. Among the marzes, the marz of Ararat has the most, 115 pre-school institutions, and the marz of Vayots Dzor has the fewest, 18 institutions. As Melsida Sargsian, the chief specialist of the pre-school department of the RA Ministry of Education and Science stated in the interview to the Noyan Tapan correspondent, there are at all no pre-school institutions in 448 communities of Armenia today, and there are buildings in 338 ones but they do not function. In these institutions envisaged for children from 0-6 years old, their involvement has the following picture: attendance of 1-4 year old children makes 6.75%, and of 5-6 year old children makes 20.0%. In M.Sargsian's words, the law "On Pre-School Education" has already been adopted which will regulate the problems gathered in the sphere. In her words, after fall of the Soviet orders, no joint directed state policy was implemented in this sphere of education. The present pre-school institutions are put into operation and financed by communities. Every community itself decides the size of the institution employee's salary and the size of the payment for one child's attendance. In total, the highest payment is 5-7 thousand drams for one child, and the lowest reaches 2.5 thousand drams. The size of the money is defined at the community councillors' council. M.Sargsian is sure that pre-school institutions today need complex reforms. "Pre-school institutions today continue working according to the Soviet Union standards. It is necessary to work out flexible programs, methodological literature on implementation of their activity, introduce short-term and alternative ways of work which will assist increase of children's involvement," the chief specialist finds. According to her estimation, today pre-school institutions must solve few primary problems: assist the child's all-round development, prepare the child for school and assist families in the issue of the child's education. The Ministry of Education and Science and UNICEF implement already for the second year a program of parents' education where parents having children at the age of 0-6 are taught what a child at that age needs, how their bringing up and education must be organized. "Children at this age are interested in a toy and game. It is necessary to implement whole their daily life, sleep, busy time, education, with the help of various toys and games," M.Sargsian emphasized. She also stated that an alternative program on pre-school education is being experienced in the marz of Ararat what is envisaged for parents and children of rural settlements. During the period of field works in summer months pre-school institutions must work in two shifts, in evening hours as well.

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