Day of Persons with Disabilities

The Minister of Education and Science of Georgia – Mr. Aleksandre Jejelava spent the Day of Persons with Disabilities with the students of the IT vocational school.

How does the concept of inclusive education function in practice – was the minister's topic of interest during his visit at the vocational school, where amongst other students, there are 15 with disabilities.

In recent years, there have been significant changes made in the vocational education system, and in the implementation of inclusive education, which is based on the international experience, and the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Since 2013, there has been more than 400 persons with special educational needs and disabilities involved in the vocational education. In order to facilitate and improve the quality and the entire learning process, a variety of support services have been introduced such as: inclusive education specialist, sign language interpreter, mobility and orientation trainer, and etc.). Additionally, a complete renovation of five vocational school based on the universal principles are being implemented, as well as the retraining of specialists, and the development of Georgian gesture language.

During the Minister’s visit to vocational schools, the major question for the audience was; how the vocational education has changed the lives of young people, what are they planning for the future and what kind of advice could they give to their peers, who may face a choice in life to get limited education due to some personal barriers, when everyone can be realized and become and independent member of today’s society. The main principle of the inclusive education serves exactly this purpose. It is impossible for the society to be homogenous and have the ambition to develop. Consequently, the educational system should be tailor down to the needs of every individual, whilst giving everyone an equal access to the education.