The results of the national school Olympiads and university-wide Olympiads for bachelor’s students were summed up at the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU).

The annual event held at the initiative of the Chair of Pedagogy aims to reveal the expectations of children from the 21st century teachers, promote their professional orientation, and foster interest in the teaching profession.

This year, the Olympiad in the subject of “Pedagogy” was held in three stages and featured 30 ninth graders. Seventeen entered Round 2 after passing a test on school pedagogy. Those who advanced to the next round wrote an essay on the topic “Bullying in School,” while the nine students who entered Round 3 presented works on the topic “The 21st-Century Teachers as I Envision Them.”

Based on the established criteria, the organizing committee named Margarita Beglaryan, a 9th-grade student of Yerevan Basic School № 80 named after Vagharsh Vagharshyan, as winner of the national school Olympiad in “Pedagogy.”

Margarita Beglaryan believes that a teacher in the 21st century should be a light of knowledge, a model of humanity, and a source of inspiration: being a teacher is not merely a profession, but a mission: “A teacher is the person who builds the future by educating generations. A good teacher can change the life of one child, and that child can change the whole world in the future,” she said in her speech.

Summing up the presentations Professor Aida Topuzyan, Head of the Chair of Pedagogy, emphasized that the majority of participants consider not only knowledge and professional preparedness but also kindness and high moral values to be important qualities for a teacher.

She added that receiving education has become a common phenomenon in our time and rarely causes surprise, whereas the truly concerning issue is the lack of good manners, humane attitude, and a strong value system. It is these qualities that shape true educators, making them not only transmitters of knowledge, but also people who educates generations and forms values.

Aida Topuzyan then handed over certificates to the participating schoolchildren for their active participation in the Olympiad.

During the event, the results of the Olympiad for university students were also announced. In this case, the aim was to deepen undergraduate students’ knowledge of Pedagogy, strengthen their practical abilities and skills, and contribute to the development of pedagogical mindset. 

Participants in the first round completed a test on the history of pedagogy. The 28 students who advanced to the second round presented pedagogical situations, offering at least two possible solutions, and substantiating their viewpoints. In Round 3, the 17 participants who passed the previous round presented individual and group projects on the topic “Contemporary Issues in Childhood”

The students presented videos addressing current problems of childhood, particularly the declining role of play in children’s lives and the replacement of real interactions with the virtual world.

Liana Tovmasyan, Maya Jamalyan, and Arpine Stepanyan, first-year students of the Faculty of Philology, were named winners of the Olympiad.

The participants received certificates, while the winners were given gifts and diplomas.