Recently rumors have been spread among public and mass media that kindergartens are being kept closed because Yerevan Municipality has decided to save money by not heating them. Only 56 out of 162 kindergartens in Yerevan have central heating systems; the rest are warmed with electric heaters.

Kindergartens that have stayed shut because of the spread of seasonal flu and swine flu fears since December 8, 2008, will start running from February 1, unlike schools which were reopened on January 11.

Silva Achoyan, Deputy Head of the Education and Science Department at the Yerevan Municipality Administration, told ArmeniaNow that economizing is out of the question and the rumors are not true.

“We have received letters from many parents and the managers of kindergartens that have no heating system, that they want the kindergartens to be closed,” says Achoyan. “So it was decided to shut all kindergartens (regardless whether they are heated by electricity or gas.) Hadn’t we closed all kindergartens, we would have had a lot of complaints, saying why one kindergarten is open and another is closed.” She added that the heating of kindergartens is a serious problem, and the Municipality plans to solve this issue during the next two or three years.

Shushan Hunanyan, assistant to the Minister of Health of Armenia (MOH), told ArmeniaNow that according to the daily monitoring data of MOH, recently the cases of respiratory diseases have reduced five times. According to the latest data, 119 cases of swine flu (confirmed in laboratory) have been registered in Armenia (three people died of swine flu).

The closure of kindergartens resulted in difficulty among working parents who had to look for alternative means of taking care of their children during the past two months. Those who could not turn to grandparents were forced to hire baby-sitters, incurring unexpected expense.

Frida Ghazaryan, 29, who has a three-year-old daughter, says that her parents-in-law are taking care of her daughter while she is at work. Ghazaryan says the closure of kindergartens is justified, only if it was done to avoid the spread of flu, however, does not believe that the problem in fact is so serious.

“I partly share the concerns of parents, who think that the government just wants to save on energy. And if the reason of closures is to prevent the spread of the infection – aren’t there any other means to control the spread of flu? The closure negatively reflects especially upon children. They stay at home the whole day, get bored and depressed,” she concludes.

More than 50 private kindergartens (where monthly fees cost up to $300) have remained open. (Some state-run kindergartens are free; others charge up to $30, depending on the decision of the district municipality.)