President Armen Sarkissian made a statement at the World Innovation Summit for Education: life, success, and knowledge are not possible without morality and culture

President Armen Sarkissian, who is in the State of Qatar on official visit, participated in Doha at the prestigious 10th World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE 2019).

The WISE is an international undertaking which aims at transforming education through innovation, enhancement of new approaches and study of new methods to face urgent global educational problems. It is a multifaceted platform for creative thinking, discourse and targeted activities.

The Summit is an initiative of the Foundation of Qatar and is being conducted under the auspices of the Chairperson of the Foundation and co-founder Sheikha Moza bint Nasser al-Missend since 2009. Previous speakers of the Summit included the Secretary General of the UN António Guterres, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard, other reputable individuals.

This year, the Summit is attended by over 3000 representatives of state and private sectors from over 100 countries, among them scholars, experts, and researchers.

President Armen Sarkissian made a statement at the Summit and said in particular: “I would like to start with the words of gratitude addressed to Her Majesty who has invited me to participate, not only speak but also listen and learn because education is eternal and for all. Education is the most important part of our life, our activities, of humankind.

I would also like to thank Her Majesty for the opportunity to visit the Foundation of Qatar. It is a splendid, aimed into the future structure indeed. But most of all, I would like to thank for the opportunity to visit the library. I truly enjoyed it. Part of it looks like an archeological site, contains 65,000 manuscripts which tell not only the history of Qatar but also the culture of the region and human history. There are millions of books which tell the history of the today’s humanity, present the riches of everything we have – science, technologies, culture.

While being there, I got the idea that the place could be named “The Gates of Time” which connects us with the past of thousands of years but at the same library you can look towards the future and ponder which way to choose. Certainly, when one thinks of “The Gates of Time”, one starts to ponder about the time itself, about where we are and what are we doing. Today, the world is somewhat confused: we don’t know where we are moving towards, there are multiple questions and only few answers on what is going on in the world. The world seems to be unpredictable, ungovernable. What are we going to do next?

Allow me to express my personal opinion on this and I will use again “The Gates of Time” moving back 100-150 years. 100-150 years ago, the humanity was using the great ideas and theories of Isaak Newton and others. Classical mechanics was reigning everywhere and was providing answers to all questions. Science was able to explain everything, including cosmos and planets. However, the situation started to change gradually. Especially in course of in-depth researches of universe or little particles, classical mechanics was not able to provide explanations to many phenomena. Comparing things which happened in science 150 years ago, one can see that the history repeats itself. Today too, science is somewhat confused, scholars are confused, teachers, many of universities, because they don’t know what to teach the kids, there are so many questions which have no answers. But the answer came by itself. Human genius in the person of Albert Einstein, Heisenberg and others created the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. It changed totally our approach, our philosophy and logic regarding many issues. It is necessary to change the entire way of thinking, to accept the quantum world where everything is in harmony.

In the next 100 years, the world, countries and societies, we all will reap the fruits which have been brought by the new mindset of the quantum world.

When I think of the contemporary world, I see that confusion is even greater today. What’s next? I will use “The Gates of Time” again. The world is totally different. When I look through “The Gates of Time”, I see the following motto, “Welcome to the new, quantum world.” This is a world where the personal ability is important. Look at our children. They are born and their first interaction with the world is not only mechanical or material but also virtual. They start to live two lives: real and virtual. Smartphones become part of their everyday life. Turned off iPads are their actual books. Healthcare has changed too.

Through the introduction of artificial intelligence and quantum physics we will be able very fast to read our DNA, will be able to live longer, to defeat diseases. Industry will change too.

From now on, an auto vehicle can be assembled by two robots. In this case, what the huamns will do?

Human activities will include creative work, design, control over all this. Individuals from now on will be interconnected. We are already quantum in a sense that our communication can take place with the speed of light. Each of us has a depository of knowledge in our pockets. The question is whether we can use it, create something important and beautiful from that knowledge. In the quantum world, in which we will be living, there will be individual’s power. We already live in that world. Part of our politics has also become quantum,” the President said. In his statement President Sarkissian stressed the importance of education with its significant mission of revealing talents.

“Each child is born gifted. Bach was not taught to create music, he was born with that ability, however, a proper environment should be created and talents should be encouraged,” Armen Sarkissian said.

“Certainly, it is not easy to find talents, it requires patience, love and hard work. But it is very important for children to discover their gift.” The President of Armenia underscored that even if a person is successful, gifted and powerful, he or she shouldn’t forget that there are thousands of people around them who have no access to the same technologies and information. Thus, it is important to always remember about others. “Geniuses were not born in rich cities; they were born in small towns, in obscure places. We have to remember about it,” the President of Armenia said.

According to Armen Sarkissian, the new boost in our life should be young people’s trust in their own abilities. “You must believe that you can become a startup and be successful because this is startups’ time,” he said.

“Have trust in yourselves. Is knowledge, information enough? I believe not, because there is something more important – your identity, your human values, your faith, your culture. You should know your culture very well. We spend way too much time to reveal talents and support them. But we also should be sure that that talent will become richer through culture, nation, and family. Human energy, talent, and genius can be productive as well as not. We are protected by human values, native history, culture, knowledge about our religion which is very important. I believe you can live in a desert and have a successful life, create knowledge and culture in a desert. But life, success, and knowledge are not possible without morality and culture.”

At the conclusion of his speech, President Armen Sarkissian wished success to all present and underscored once again that a person remains young when he or she lives by learning something new every day, teaching others, or creating something. “I wish you all a young, beautiful, and healthy life,” the President of Armenia said in conclusion.