YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. Overcoming poverty is a priority task for the government of Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a meeting with the Armenian community representatives of France in Paris. “Now we have a historic chance to solve this issue in a very short way. Today it is guaranteed in Armenia by 100% that a young man with a respective education will find a job in the IT sector with a high salary and Armenian standards. At the moment there are 3000-4000 vacant positions in the IT field in Armenia, and this will be tomorrow, the next day, in the coming year, in two years, etc.”, the PM said.

Pashinyan said they see that they not only have an opportunity to take serious actions for overcoming poverty, but also bring welfare to the people. “Our vision in the education reforms is linked with this. Currently we are looking at what changes they can bring in order for us to take a child with a right way not to overcoming poverty, but establishing welfare”, he said.

According to him, the main task of the government’s educational policy is the following – how to help a child to be more competitive, to take care of himself, find a job, rather than to constantly wait for the assistance of the government, the Diaspora and charitable organizations. “And we want to solve a priority issue on making jobs in the industry, military-industry and technology spheres because this not only solves the poverty issue, but also the issue of raising our country’s security level. Today we need engineers for two simple reasons. Firstly, an engineer will find a job with a high salary in our labor market very quickly. Secondly, that engineer will be able to solve the tasks put by our military-industrial complex, which, as a result, will in turn solve the issue of ensuring the security level of our country”, Pashinyan added.

The PM said there is one problem here, maybe he will not have sufficient education for delivering an impressive toast. “But this issue can be solved with self-education during free times. We are telling a very simple thing – let’s replace the education system that prepares a generation of toastmasters with a system that prepares engineers. And we are told how you can do that? Are you taking actions against our identity? But we say that our identity is the strong, self-confident Armenia, strong in military, industrial and economic terms. Our entire policy is based on this logic, starting from the domestic policy up to the foreign one. We will move on this path because we want to give a trust to our country and people in both the foreign and domestic policy. We want to replace the reality formed around toasts with a reality built around the development of creative capabilities”, he said. “We want our education system to prepare specialists who will not only find a job in Armenia, will not only establish their welfare with that job, but also will develop the industrial, technological and innovative Armenia thanks to that job and welfare. On this path we are seeking your support, firstly the moral one. We want Armenia to be a country where one can make an investment, become wealthier, thus enriching the country. And we are convinced that we moving on this path”.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan