Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s answers to students’ questions posed during academic achievement certificate handing ceremony at Yerevan State University

– Mr. Prime Minister, during the last cabinet sitting of 2010 you expressed concern in connection with the high level of corruption in the field of education. What do you think should be done to curb corruption in the sphere of higher education? Can students’ associations be of service to you in this matter?

– Thank you. You were right to note that we attach great importance to the problem. Minister Ashotyan was instructed in public to table a clear-cut program of anticorruption efforts. He did so and the program is available at the official website of the Ministry of Education and Science and you can get acquainted with them. Secondly, I do believe that we can only succeed if we have your commitment and support. It stands for an axiom to me. Neither the government nor the ministry can succeed without your assistance. The ministry is open for dialog in this respect. The minister has already received numerous suggestions from you as to which way the action plan can be supplemented with new proposals. We are ready to dialog and will back any initiative of yours. We will do it in public. We are prepared to take part in any discussion held in student quarters in order to collect such opinions and recommendations of yours as will be backed by the overwhelming majority of students. Success will come to us if we manage to shed light on the reasons behind and the specific cases of corruption. Further details may be found on the website of the ministry. Let us set a date for a meeting to have a comprehensive discussion of your proposals.

– Mr. Prime Minister, how do you treat the statements according to which your government may quit soon?

– A good question. In general, opposition in any country is eager of coming to power. Therefore, they do everything to demand the resignation of authorities. This is the logic of political struggle and the opposition will always resort to it in order to strengthen their political standing and hit the target.

Struggling for additional votes, either the ruling party tries to persuade people that it is the only force capable of coping with the people’s concerns and addressing the problems facing the nation and the State. I am convinced by signing the coalition memorandum the RPA, the Prosperous Armenia Party and the Rule-of-Law Party sent another indication of their firm determination to meet the challenges ahead and lead the country forward.

Indeed, our opponents will try to prove the opposite. Nevertheless, I am convinced that they are doomed to failure because the opinion of our people is quite clear and visible in this sense. While we respect and honor criticism and our opponents’ opinions, at the same time we state our standpoints and struggle for public support. Thank you.