Վայոց ձորի մարզպետի աշխատակազմ

 Dear Mr. Chairman.

Dear Colleagues.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great honor for me, as an Alumnus of the Yerevan School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe, to participate in the first International Alumni Seminar of the Schools of Political Studies. I am also 2010 year alumnus of Moscow School of civic education.

We are happy that one of the goals of this Seminar is the expansion of the network of the alumni of the Schools of Political Studies and the expansion of the borders of our cooperation. In Armenia we have managed to live and to develop democratic values with almost entirely closed country borders for more than 20 years.  We are very well aware of the real value of open borders and we are ready to use all of our strength and abilities to make friends and to cooperate with our colleagues from different countries, coming from different cultural backgrounds, but sharing the same values.

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to thank the organizers of the seminar for the very interesting and full agenda. While talking about the youth and education I would like to underline the great role of education in the development of the societies. Education opens possibilities not only for new knowledge and skills, but also lays grounds for new values, for decent work and secure and dignified life. The recent studies in Armenia confirm that families with at least one family member with higher education are able to overcome poverty on their own means and capacities. Perhaps this is the why the Armenian Government considers accessible education as one of its priorities. 

However, academic education is a necessary but not the only prerequisite for the development of a healthy society.  It is of great importance for young people to have civic stance, to see and to feel themselves the true owners of their statesand to bring change through their active engagement, new ideas and new initiatives. The recent protocol of the CoECharter on local self-governancerefers to the Participatory democracy. Participation of educated and active young people in the decision making processes can have only positive impact on the quality and implementation of decisions. I am happy that as a result of international collaboration, we have active youth groups in our Region who are active leaders and play an essential role in the community life and some of them are members of the youth council in our Administration.

Dear Colleagues.

I recall from the years of my academic experience, that there was a group of students who, on their own initiative, reconstructed the city park of their community. By the way, this was a result of collective decision made by them. These young people managed to mobilize resources from various sources, had meetings with the mayor, participated in the community council meetings, presented the issues, and managed to get the necessary funding and support to fulfill their ideas. This became possible thanks to their collective efforts, and their education. No one would ever be able to impose their decisions on these young people who reached their goal in a truly democratic way. These are our new citizens, the citizens that are so much on demand for all of us. 

I think that nowadays in the rapidly changing world, the education institutions are facing new challenges.  The knowledge that we give to our students is becoming outdated very quickly. We have to equip the young people with contemporary thinking,with ability and skills to quickly get, analyze and use the requires information. In this regard the Schools of political studies play a vital role for the Countries with young democracies. The regular meetings under the auspices of the Council of Europe, the exchange of ideas and experiences, and the sharing of best practices, will lay grounds for more confident actions in societal development, the rule of law, true democracies andrespect of human rights in all of our states.

Thank you for your attention!