Yerevan, April 27, Armenpress: The UNICEF Armenia office is conducting a study among children of refugee families and national minorities in an effort to expose what kind of educational problems they face. The results of the study are expected to be clear in June, to be followed by development of a program that will seek full involvement of these children into educational process.

Presently only 85 percent of boys and 84 percent of children attend school and 25 percent of them spend only eight years at school. According to UNICEF Armenia office press secretary Emil Sahakian, the reasons are different, but the main is poverty. UNICEF is cooperating with Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper program in a bid to solve this problems with assistance of various organizations and agencies.

UNICEF has helped to introduce the universal education program allowing disabled children to attend ordinary secondary schools. There are now 8 such schools and 16 kindergartens. As a result some 250 disabled children attend ordinary secondary schools. Also a subject called Life Skills was introduced into curricula of 17 secondary schools for students of 1-7th grades.

Sahakian said UNICEF studies have revealed many instances of violation of children's rights- many children are subjected to physical and psychological violations in their families.