President received participants of the competition held in the framework of the Armenian State Symbols program

Today, at the Presidential Palace Serzh Sargsyan hosted the schoolchildren - winners of the poster competition held in the framework of the Armenian State Symbols program at the schools of the Republic, headmasters of the schools, and representatives of the School-Centers Union who organized the competition with the help of the RA Ministry of Culture. The organizers of the program presented to President Sargsyan the purpose of the competition, its procedure, the winning posters and their creators – over 30 eight-graders from the marzes of Armenia and the capital. According to the organizers, the idea behind the competition was to promote among the teenagers the understanding of the significance of the state symbols, development of the national system of values, heightening of patriotic spirit, appreciation and preservation of the Armenian cultural heritage. Before visiting the Presidential Palace, today at the Komitas Chamber Music Hall in Yerevan the organizers concluded the program with the exhibition and award ceremony. During the ceremony, winners in the first, second and third nominations received awards and commendation letters as well as incentive prizes. At the Presidential Palace for the schoolchildren was organized a tour. They familiarized with the activities of the President and his staff, presidential authority and responsibilities stipulated by the Constitution, and learned the history of the Presidential Palace.

The President of Armenia welcomed the participants of the meeting and all participants of the competition, stressed the importance of the initiative and noted that it should become an event of a regular nature.

“Dear Kids, Distinguished Tutors, I would like to duly assess the work which has been done for this competition, or in the framework of open classes, because this is an answer to the question: What’s the mission of our schools? This question has been raised here, at our meeting by the teacher from Tavush marz Mr. Rubik Gishian. In my deep conviction, the mission of our school is single – to raise a broadly educated individuals and citizens. These two must be united because a person can be interested in almost nothing throughout his life, work, raise a family and be content with the situation, but a citizen must be active, a citizen must feel responsibility for the advancement of his or her country, and a citizen certainly must be well-educated. I am not speaking about higher education, but common knowledge, knowledge about one’s village, marz, the country, about the history of our nation, about his or her art or craft.

Dear Children,

Probably, you have heard from the adults on many occasions that the future of our country depends on you. All of us – your teachers present here, myself once were children, then young people, and we believed that we were told the same because they were old or elderly and just wanted to inspire us. But when I grew older, I came to realize the entire meaning of what they had told. And the meaning is the following: to consider ourselves a nation, to be considered one of the developed nations of the world, we have to defend our Fatherland, we have to know our culture, our history and we have to pass on the love toward our culture and history to our children, to future generations. This is a necessary condition for remaining among the civilized nations; necessary but not sufficient because there exist other conditions and approaches. We must be able to move in step with time, should be able to learn about current achievements and should have our own share in these achievements. To be that way, which I repeat, is to have knowledge, we need to learn, read constantly, to use the knowledge of our parents and our teachers. Each of us should bring his or her participation to our country and in case of necessity must defend it. To defend doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be a war, and you need to go to war; it means that you should be able to decently present your country to others, make your nation more recognizable. To defend the country means that you should be able to work, to work day and night to make our country more powerful,” the President of Armenia said that stressed the importance of reverence toward the state symbols because many people gave their lives for them, and many people throughout their lives worked with dedication so that these symbols beautify our nation and worthily present our country to the world.