On the basis of the Human Rights Defender’s application, the Constitutional Court has presented important positions to the Government regarding the fees paid for textbooks in public schools.
In particular, the court mentioned that the government is obliged to guarantee transparent and equal procedures concerning the access of textbooks for pupils from socially insecure families. The Court also emphasized that procedure providing access to free textbooks for students from socially insecure families should be prescribed by the law and by-laws.
Taking the Constitutional Court’s decision into consideration, the RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan discussed the issue of establishing a textbook distribution procedure free of charge for pupils from socially insecure families with the RA Minister of Science and Education Arayik Harutyunyan.
As a reminder, months ago, on the basis of complaints received from the “Disability Info” informative NGO and citizens, the Defender applied to the Constitutional Court regarding the constitutionality of payments for school textbooks. It was also justified that no differentiated approach toward exempting vulnerable groups from textbook payments is envisaged by the law and other normative legal acts, leaving the process to the discretion of the pedagogical and parent councils of the educational institution.
The issue is that in this case a consistent legal regulation is missing, which results in discriminatory treatment. Moreover, out of shame and in order to protect their children from possible stigma, some parents generally do not bring up their financial difficulties in making these payments.