Six-year-old Hrachya from Armenia’s Voskepar border village is going to school for the first time. But his sister Mane is already 10 years old, and she is starting Grade 4.

Voskepar schoolchildren are partaking in Friday’s ceremony devoted to the start of the new school year and Knowledge Day, in a festive and cheerful mood.

During the event, village school principal Harut Alaverdyan wished the schoolchildren high achievement and peace, and asked to welcome the school’s four first-graders with applause. 

Sixty children study at Voskepar village school. Alaverdyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter that there is a school in this village ever since the 1920s, and the present-day school building was put into operation in 1982. It had 230 to 250 graduates in the 1980s, whereas there were solely nine graduates this year. 

The school, however, was a direct firing target during the years of the Karabakh War, and therefore it was damaged considerably. The principal noted that although no major shootings have taken place in recent times, the school building can be seen from the Azerbaijani side.

“As of September 1 of this year, the preparatory section—the Grade 0, where eleven children aged 5 will learn—opened adjacent to the school,” Alaverdyan said. “This inspires hope.”

Even though all classes function at the school, there is a matter of joining classrooms due to less number of schoolchildren. 

Although the school does not really have a shortage of specialists, there is a challenge in connection with the law requirements for potential teachers.

“The schools of border villages have a special mission,” educator Zoya Papyan reminded her colleagues. “To protect the borders of the homeland.”