By Talar Hisarlı Horozoğlu
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
ISTANBUL — The Hrant Dink School in the Gedikpasa neighborhood of Istanbul currently has about 80 students (26 in kindergarten, 29 in primary school and 25 in middle school) and 16 teachers, including the principal of the school, a cook and a cleaner. As the spring semester has started, we are committed to make the most out of our educational as well as social programs and activities.
As such we have launched math classes taught in the English and Russian languages for the 3rd and 4th grades. This interdisciplinary initiative aims at improvement of foreign language skills among young students in a more practical and comprehensive method. The earliest feedback is promising.
It is safe to say that our students — their parents to be exact — come from all over Armenia. Most of them are from Yerevan, Gyumri or Vanadzor. Yet we have students who were born in Istanbul as well. Turning to their parents, they generally work as babysitters, cleaner, maids and caregivers (mothers). Fathers are normally involved in the leather manufacturing as well as the jewelry sector.
