Prime Minister`s Cup must more and more closely linked with education  - Nikol Pashinyan  

ArmInfo.Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and his wife Anna Hakobyan  yesterday attended the final stage of the amateur table tennis tournament "Prime Minister's Cup of the Republic of Armenia" at the Ara Manukyan children's and youth sports school in the city of Charentsavan, Kotayk region of the republic, the press service of the RA government reports. 

Like last year, the 2024 "Prime Minister's Cup of the Republic of  Armenia" tournament will start with an amateur table tennis  tournament. Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan watched the final  matches of the tournament. After the competition, the awards ceremony  took place. Certificates of appreciation were presented before the  award ceremony. This year, for the first time, the amateur table  tennis tournament "Prime Minister's Cup of the Republic of Armenia"  was held exclusively among schoolchildren. In general, about 45% of  all schools in the republic were included in the pre-election stage  of the amateur table tennis tournament "Prime Minister's Cup of the  Republic of Armenia". More than 3,100 students of grades 5-9 and  10-12 from 626 state educational institutions in Yerevan and regions  of Armenia took part in the competition. The winners and runners-up  of the tournament were awarded diplomas from the Ministry of  Education, Science, Culture and Sports, cups, medals, and cash  prizes. Schools that took prizes were awarded: 1st place - 4 million  drams, 2nd place - 2.5 million drams, 3rd place - 1.5 million drams.  The physical education teachers of the winning teams were also  awarded: 1st place - 700,000 drams, 2nd place - 500,000 drams, 3rd  place - 300,000 drams. Members of the winning teams of the tournament  were also awarded cash prizes: 1st place (4 participants) - 150,000  drams each, 2nd place (4 participants) - 100,000 drams each, 3rd  place (4 participants) - 75,000 drams each.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia presented prizes to the  winning students of grades 10-12 - students of Vanadzor Secondary  School No. 5, Yerevan High School No. 170 named after Alexander  Kemurjyan and Teghout High School. Minister of Education, Science,  Culture and Sports Zhanna Andreasyan presented awards to the winning  students of grades 5-9 - students of Vanadzor basic school No. 23,  Yerevan basic school No. 104, and Kajaran secondary school No. 2.

In his speech, Nikol Pashinyan noted that organizing a table tennis  tournament only among schoolchildren was the right decision in the  sense that it gave the tournament participants completely different  emotions and mood. According to the head of government, the  tournament is also important from the point of view of representing  the work of teachers, because most of the victories of students are  the result of their work.

The Prime Minister emphasized that these tournaments are important in  the sense that they should be more and more connected with education  and school, and added that this area needs to be consistently  developed, also taking into account that through this a healthy  lifestyle is promoted, and this important both in terms of  healthcare, and in terms of education, and in terms of promoting the  sporting ambitions of our country. The Prime Minister thanked the  Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports for carrying out  organizational work at the proper level, as well as the Table Tennis  Federation for holding the tournament fairly, freely and  transparently.