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On June 2 the NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan visited the Hovhannes Shiraz School № 169 in Yerevan, where he took part in the Yerevan city phase of already traditional 3^rd Children and Youth Republican Recitation Contest-Festival on his initiative and under his auspice. This year the Contest-Festival is dedicated to the 95^th birth anniversary of the great writer Hovhannes Shiraz. The Head of the Parliament was escorted by a group of deputies.

The NA Speaker laid flowers at the Hovhannes Shiraz monument in the schoolyard, talked to children, which performed recitations from the works of the great writer.

In honour of the NA Speaker’s visit, a real solemn greeting was organized: the RA national flag was hoisted, the country’s anthem sounded, bread and salt was served. In the name of the school the NA Speaker was donated the national map of the Republic of Armenia and the schoolchildren welcomed Hovik Abrahamyan with singing and dancing.

The NA Speaker got acquainted with the school, mainly, the exhibition works of its pupils. Afterwards, the guests attended the school’s Hall of Fame where a minute silence was observed in memory of the school’s fallen pupils in the Battle of Artsakh Liberty.

Announcing the launch of the city phase of the Children and Youth Republican Recitation Contest-Festival in the school hall, Gayane Soghomonyan, the Head of the Education Department of Yerevan City Hall, thanked the NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan for undertaking the festival and she noted that due to the festival pupils and teachers of even the most remote schools read not only the works of our great writers, but also learned them by heart. In the words of the Head of the Education Department the programmes organized in the Parliament, mainly, the Open Lesson for schoolchildren, Recitation festival and etc., promote the formation of tomorrow’s citizens of Armenia. She also expressed her gratitude to the Speaker for boosting the educational reforms, hearing their views on that and tackling the raised issues.

Susanna Kirakosyan, the School Principal, thanked Hovik Abrahamyan for organizing the festival on behalf of school’s pedagogical, pupilary and parental staff. “Each person should leave a trace. You are doing it.” addressing the NA Speaker, she said.

Greeting the participants and those present in the Recitation Festival, the NA Speaker firstly congratulated everybody on the International Children’s Day. The NA Speaker stated that he was very delighted to find himself among pedagogues and highly appreciated their work, mentioning that they were the only stratum that remained devoted to its mission and went on committing itself to the occupation of educating and bringing up during the past cold and dark years, notwithstanding the difficulties. “We always owe them”, the Speaker said. “This is the most pleasant hour of my work - to be among pedagogues, pupils and respectable people of educational sphere”. In his words, in the countries like ours education, science and culture should be the key directions.

Touching upon the Children and Youth Republican Recitation Contest-Festival, the NA Speaker noted that organizing this it became possible to revitalize the love towards Armenian poetry, Armenian literature in the coming generation. And the gradual increase in the number of participants speaks about the fact that interest in poetry and literature is also growing. “It is the victory for all of us” the NA Speaker said adding that the Contest-Festival was given a greater value by being dedicated to the 95^th birth anniversary of Hovhannes Shiraz.

The NA Speaker informed them that the Youth Parliament was already running and it had convened its first sitting. Expressing confidence that efficient ideas would be proposed there, Hovik Abrahamyan noted that this structure, which could become a forge of human resources, was one more step to make the youth be engaged in political and economic processes in Armenia. By the way, in a while during the meeting with the school’s pedagogical staff in the Hall of Memory, the School Principal Susanna Kirakosyan, talking about the Open Lesson programme (in the framework of which the pupils of this school also visited the Parliament), told the NA Speaker that owing to that programme, actually, a pupilary parliament had also been established: visiting the National Assembly, schoolchildren got acquainted with the highest legislative body, met with the authorities, and after meeting they would tell what they had seen and been impressed by.

The meeting between the Parliament and pedagogues was very direct and warm: the Head of the Parliament himself provided this kind of contacts for the participants, willingly listening to the teachers’ viewpoints and proposals. But there were diverse themes: social-economic, educational and by all means, issues relating just to the school. Attaching a great importance to the role of education and science, the NA Speaker stated that there was a need of people walking on earth, because one would not build a country with beautiful words and by delivering a speech. Hovik Abrahamyan noted that educational issues were in the focus of government’s concern, but they didn’t possess the magic stick to handle all the problems at once.

The teachers particularly raised the issue of heating and the NA Speaker promised to turn to the possibility of resolving the issue after getting acquainted with it.

Hovik Abrahamyan left a note in the school’s Guestbook and expressed appreciation to the pedagogues for the warm reception and the frank conversation.