KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Today, the Rector of the Pedagogical University Rouben Mirzakhanyan welcomed the delegation of the Republic of Belarus headed by the Deputy Minister of Sports and Tourism Alexander Dubkovsky.

The Rector welcomed the guests and stated that the Pedagogical University had been cooperating with the Belarus State Pedagogical University for a long while; in this light joint exchange programmes for lecturers were being implemented, and besides, the students had been participating in the “Summer School” international programme in the recent years.

During the meeting the parties spoke about the peculiarities of introducing the Chess as a mandatory subject in secondary schools as well as about the Research Laboratory for Chess Education open at the University.

“The course “Chess at Schools”, which has raised the interest of the world’s leading educational establishments, is the Armenian educational brand; the competent psychologists and sociologists of the University’s laboratory have been conducting serious research for already a while to find out the influence of chess on the learners’ development and other courses; in addition, numerous articles have already been published in leading international journals,” mentioned the ASPU Rector and added that the Chess was the main target of our educational system.

In his turn the Deputy Minister of Sport and Tourism of Belarus Alexander Bubkovsky expressed acknowledgements for the warm admission and noticed that the visits to a number of secondary schools, participation in the learning process made them unveil their admiration for the teaching process and pupils’ interested therein. The Armenian experience will contribute to the process of promotion and development of the Chess in Belarus.

“Introduction of the Chess at schools must not be merely on a methodological level; it is a more expansive question referring to pedagogy, psychology and sociology. This is the case when we shouldn’t hurry; vice versa, we need to take consistent steps to train specialists and to regulate all other issues. The Chess is the basis for our children’s health, their development, establishment of friendly relations and collaboration; meetings and consultations with your specialists, together with the support received therefrom will assist to the implementation of all of that.”

To conclude, the guests, accompanied by the Founding President of the Armenian Chess Academy, the ASPU Head of Chair of Chess and Sports, Grand Master Smbat Lputyan, visited the Research Laboratory of Chess Education and the Chess auditorium where they had a conversation with specialists and got familiarized with the process on the spot.