• The contest is open only to school students (forms 7-12) in Armenia, and college students aged 12-18.

• The contest is conducted in English.

• The contest begins in January 2019 when the curriculum is published online, and concludes with the national finals on Saturday May 4, 2019. 13 regional contests will be conducted all over Armenia in March, 2019. Follow National Poetry Recitation Contest on Facebook to find out where and when your regional contest will take place. 

• All students must be registered before they will be permitted to compete. Students who register for a form other than their own will be disqualified. Registration opens on January 14th. You can go here to register. Students can register themselves or can be registered by their teachers. Individual contact details will be needed for every student. Registration for each regional contest will close one week before the contest date.

• Schools can register up to five students for each form (7-12).

• If schools wish, they may hold their own contests to select the five students to enter each form. Partnership and Teaching NGO and the NPRC team will not be involved in these contests.

• All poems recited at regional contests and the national finals must be selected from the relevant curriculum for the contest.  See curriculum by form here.  It will be posted on January 14th.

• Every student must recite a poem from the curriculum for his or her own form. This will be strictly enforced as it makes fairness easier to ensure when judging.

• There will be a separate curriculum for the national finals, meaning that national finalists will need to study, analyze/interpret, memorize and recite a new poem at the finals.  The curriculum for the national finals will be released on April 1 , 2019 and will be available here.

• Costumes and props are not allowed and will result in disqualification.

• Additional performances beyond spoken recitation of the poem (e.g. singing the poem, playing a musical instrument, etc.) are not allowed and will result in disqualification.

• Each contestant is permitted to begin his or her poem again, one time, should memory fail or the student become flustered. This does not count against the student in judging. Overall, please remember that this is not a test of memory. The judges are more interested in clear pronunciation, comprehension and interpretation than in accuracy.

• All registered, eligible students will have a fair chance to recite their poem and will be judged solely according to their merit. See judging criteria here.

• Teachers must accompany their students to the regional contest and (if applicable) the national finals.

• 6 students (one first prize winner per form) per region (12) will be eligible to take part in the national finals.

• National finalists from each region must be accompanied to Yerevan by a chaperone.

• The judges’ decisions at regional contests and national finals will be final.

• Administrative decisions made by Partnership and Teaching NGO and the NPRC team will be final

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