Some university students in Armenia say it isn’t fair that primary school students get a flu break, when they don’t. (Classes for Grades 1-12 have been suspended till December 21, due to widespread influenza.)

The argument of the Ministry of Health that kindergarten and secondary children are the age that makes them more exposed to infection seems unconvincing for many older students who say they have also been exposed to the outbreak of the disease and had better stay at home.

University students say statistics on absentees at higher schools of learning might be better than at lower schools, but that’s, they say, because students would go to all lengths to attend classes, at times even in extremely sick condition, to meet the new credit system of evaluation where the attendance criteria could give a crucial advantage in deciding the overall progress of a student.

In accordance with the new credit system that higher schools in Armenia have introduced this academic year, evaluation is based on a 100-point scale, in which 15 points are contributed by a student’s physical attendance of lectures.

“Aren’t we human beings? Can’t we catch a cold?” asks Taguhi Manvelyan, a student at Yerevan State Economics University, who, like many of her mates, is puzzled by the education minister’s decision.

Sona Khachaturyan, a student at the European University in Yerevan, is one of those who attend lectures so as to not lose credit for absenteeism.

“My lecturer today even sent me home from the last lesson seeing that I had a fever. Sick students came to lectures yesterday. Today we already have 10 absentees from among 50 students in our group. Fifteen were as sick as I, but they still chose to come to classes,” says Khachaturyan.

Hovhannes Arakelyan also reluctantly attends classes at the Yerevan State Light Industry College. While he says he is healthy, he also fears he could catch the flu from other sick students who are reluctant to stop attending.

“A harder line on absentees has been taken this week. They give you a bad mark for being absent, and that’s why sick students choose to attend, and I’m afraid they will infect me, too,” he says.

After the announcement of the decision, Education & Science Minister Armen Ashotyan explained that it did not apply to universities because they are currently in examination sessions, meaning that normal classes are not held and students gather for tests and exams only occasionally, and that’s why there was little chance they could get infected.

Most students contacted by ArmeniaNow, however, counter that they still have normal classes and are no less exposed to cold and flu risks than those at schools and kindergartens. In reality, a majority of higher schools have their examination sessions either in late December or after the New Year break in January.

Public relations officer at the Ministry of Education and Science Artur Baghdasaryan told ArmeniaNow that the decision was applied to schools and kindergartens because “[Health Minister Harutyun] Kushkyan said that people of those age groups are exposed to greater risk. And higher schools are entitled to make decisions independently on whether to suspend classes or not taking into account the number of absentees.”

(Several higher schools as well as the Ministry of Education have found it difficult to give ArmeniaNow exact statistics on absentees covering the most recent period, citing lack of immediate monitoring data and further need to process the information that could be made available. But they said observations did not show as dramatic an increase in this rate as it was in junior educational establishments).

While not all higher schools are in a rush to take advantage of independent decision making on closures, some have partially used this right.

Yerevan State Medical University decided on Wednesday to suspend classes for December 14-18 because of “the epidemical situation in the country.”