On February 8 the Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Artak Davtyan had a meeting with about 30 members of the “Future is Yours” NGO. The NGO implements the programme “Your Vote is the Future of the Country,” which by the assistance of the European Union is a part of the programme “Support to Two Elections in Armenia” being carried out by the OSCE Yerevan Office.
Welcoming the visit of the pupils and the students of the NGO member senior schools to the parliament Artak Davtyan expressed conviction that such meetings would be continuous and useful. At the request of the meeting participants the Committee Chairman touched upon the pre-electoral processes, the features of the parliamentarian works, presented comparative analysis with other countries.
In response to the question especially how these presidential elections differ from the previous ones, Artak Davtyan noticed that the expecting elections would be several steps ahead of the others and the pre-electoral period distinguishes with its healthy procedure and calm competitiveness.
The participants of the meeting also addressed questions on the spheres of culture, education, and science. One of the students studying in the Faculty of History of the Yerevan State University was interested in Artak Davtyan’s opinion on “Garegin Nzhdeh” film, which had become a reason of stormy discussions. Highly appreciating the role of the film as a campaigning powerful instrument, Artak Davtyan noted that despite the indicating shortcomings, his general assessment was positive and it was not worth of very strictly judging it.
Touching upon the demand and supply relationship between the sphere of education and job market, discrepancies and problems of quality the Committee Chairman noted that the young people's many concerns were justified, however we should also notice that a lot of work had been done during the recent years: the quality of education in Armenia is not only high evaluated in the region with different indices, but is also considered competitive in the whole world.
During the question and answer session the “Future is Yours” NGO were interested in the order and standards of receiving scientific degrees and titles, educational programmes in the senior school, the education of the youth in the marzes, conditions created for the leisure and other problems.