Special teachers involved in inclusive education will be granted a teacher status

During the meeting of the Georgian government, the amendments to the inclusive education were discussed by which the Georgian legislation will be harmonized with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in full compliance with the internationally recognized standards.

In the draft law submitted by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, Georgian law on General Education sees an important change, such as the recognition of the status of a special teacher, which was the necessary requirement from the invited inclusive education specialists.

Consequently, after enacting the law, special teachers will benefit from the same privileges as the teachers of other categories. This factor will bring positive financial results.

The draft law elaborated by the Ministry, became a necessity since the Georgian Law on General Education did not comply with the international standards. Henceforth, a special teacher will be an individual who teaches a student with the special educational needs, either independently or with the subject teacher, to improve the learning outcome.

It is also important to note that in the presented draft law, in order to provide an adequate educational environment to the learner, special terms of inclusive education will be determined, such as: a student with special educational needs, individual curriculum, etc. Along with the clarification of the terms, the definition of new terminology will also be specified in the draft law – alternative curriculum, advanced curriculum, integrated class, specialized class and much more.

All these above changes will facilitate the development of students with special educational needs, create equal opportunities for learning, organizing a variety of educational processes, establishing an individual approach and implementing a variety of teaching methodologies.