News in General Education
Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Lia Gigauri spoke at a press conference about the implemented and planned innovations in general education, providing comprehensive information to journalists in this regard.
The measures implemented in the field of general education are based on analytical work carried out by the Ministry, research results, and consultations with international organizations and educational experts, as a result of which the following significant measures were carried out in 2014:
- The revision of the subject standards of the primary education stage of the National Curriculum has been completed; accordingly, new textbooks will be created for the primary stages;
- For the 2014-2015 academic year, a part of the planned changes has already been implemented in the National Curriculum, including: the teaching of a second foreign language became mandatory from the 5th grade instead of the 7th grade; the topics for homeroom/advisory hours in primary classes were defined, focusing on raising the level of literacy and developing analytical thinking. At the basic stage, homeroom/advisory hours will be dedicated to developing career planning and vocational orientation skills. Starting from September, the piloting of an entrepreneurship course will begin at the secondary stage in 100 public schools; schools were granted the right to choose the content and direction of the tutoring/abetment hours based on the needs of the students. According to the curriculum, the mandatory format and content of the teacher's interaction with parents were defined. In addition, a parent education program will be launched.
- Starting from September 2014, the monitoring of the implementation of the National Curriculum will begin at the basic and secondary stages. The obtained results will be used for the revision of the subject standards of these stages. The revision of the basic stage will be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
- The piloting of the student vocational orientation program has been successfully completed, and currently, 500 schools are involved in the program.
- Rehabilitation of school infrastructure and construction of new schools are ongoing throughout Georgia. For the new academic year, various rehabilitation works are being completed in up to 400 schools. The construction of 2 new schools will also be completed for the new academic year, 6 new schools will be put into operation by the end of 2014, while the Lambalo Public School, given its scale (designed for 1000 children), will be completed in early 2015. The construction of 8 new schools will begin this year. Schools are being actively equipped with necessary inventory; in 2014, more than 1,500 schools will be equipped, and all first-graders and their homeroom teachers will receive computers.
- The free school textbooks program is ongoing. Starting from September 2014, up to 500,000 students will be provided with school textbooks.
- School buses will serve more than 1,000 schools. Consequently, more than 53,000 students will benefit from transportation services.
- In every school where there is a student with special educational needs, a special education teacher and an assistant pedagogue work. From September 2014, there are more than 900 such schools. In accordance with the demand of the schools, the number of integrated classes has increased.
- Starting from September, medical offices will operate in schools in a pilot mode.
- Based on the requests of more than 700 schools for psychological services, the review and expansion of the activities of psychological centers have been planned.
- A scheme for entering the profession, professional development, and career advancement, developed in accordance with the new teacher standard, will be put into effect.
