From Sarvarian to Kakh-e Koodakan and Boostan School
The evolution of the Sarvarian school.
Following the end of the Second World War and the exile of Reza Shah, Armenian-language instruction was once again permitted in schools. Against this changing educational landscape, two of Margaret Sarvarian’s children, Mushegh and Sonia, began searching for a suitable new home for the old Sarvarian School.
Their search led them to Ghavam ol-Saltaneh Street, where they found a large parcel of land opposite the Egyptian Embassy. The property had apparently once served as the grounds of Sepehr High School but was no longer being used for that purpose. The Sarvarians leased the property and reestablished the Sarvarian School there. The scale and amenities of the new location opened possibilities that had not existed in the smaller school: what had primarily operated as a kindergarten and pre-elementary institution could now expand into a full elementary school. With several classrooms and a vast asphalt-covered yard, the new campus offered the family considerable room to develop its educational activities.
The arrangement, however, proved temporary. Approximately two years later, the property owner increased the rent to a level the family could no longer sustain, forcing the Sarvarians to vacate the premises. The educational center was subsequently moved to Seyed Ali Chaharrah, before Darvazeh Dolat, where the building of the English Telegraphkhaneh stood. It was here that Kakh-e Koodakan was established once again—this time permanently. Mushegh introduced the new name, transforming the identity of the Margaret Sarvarian Educational Institute into Kakh-e Koodakan, or “Palace of Children.”
The new institution represented more than a change of name or address. The Sarvarian family mobilized the full strength of its educational experience: Margaret brought decades of pedagogical knowledge; Sonia contributed a more modern educational approach; Mushegh and Napoleon brought their creativity; Mushegh’s wife, Jenia, contributed her experience as a school principal; and Napoleon’s wife, Mrs. Araks Mastians, brought an exceptional knowledge of teaching literature. Together with a group of gifted and dedicated teachers recruited by the family, these different strengths were brought under one roof, elevating the school’s educational program to an entirely new level.
Several years later, following Margaret’s death, Sonia began pursuing an educational project of her own. In the late 1950s, she researched the surrounding neighborhood and identified a nearby school that already held a Ministry of Education license under the name Boostan School. Sonia acquired the permit and documentation, allowing the institution to reopen for the following academic year. Located only one street above the Kakh-e Koodakan alley, on Khiyaban Matbooyi, the school was renamed Sonia Ballasanian’s Armenian Boostan School.
While Kakh-e Koodakan remained limited to elementary education, Boostan School benefited from a larger physical space and Sonia’s ambitious vision for its development. The school consequently expanded beyond the elementary level and eventually extended all the way through high school. For a period, the two institutions operated in close proximity, representing different branches of the educational tradition that had begun decades earlier with Margaret Sarvarian.
That chapter came to an end following the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The new government no longer permitted the private-school system under which the institutions had operated, while certain people who were instrumental in the decision-making of the Armenian Prelacy were unwilling to bring the students and educational system under its own umbrella. As a result, both Kakh-e Koodakan and Sonia Ballasanian’s Armenian Boostan School were closed, and their students were subsequently distributed among several public schools operating at the time.