Mikheil Chkhenkeli: "First of all, I must begin by speaking about safety in schools – about what has already been done, and what else needs to be done to respond to the challenges."

The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli, spoke about the measures implemented for the safety of students in public schools during his speech in Parliament.

“Let me, first of all, begin by talking about safety in schools – what has already been done, and what else needs to be done in response to challenges, in order to create a full-fledged learning environment for our children.

In 2019, the “Rules and Conditions for Ensuring Safety and Public Order in General Educational Institutions” were approved. This is the first document in the educational system focused on safety and prevention, which defines the mechanism of coordinated cooperation between the Resource Officer Service and the educational institution. This mechanism has led to the establishment of a qualitatively new type of Resource Officer Service as an institution more focused on care and prevention.

The Ministry has initiated the implementation of relevant measures regarding student safety in public schools, in particular: retraining of Resource Officer Service employees in schools; and in schools without a Resource Officer, the retraining of the person responsible for safety; as well as the strengthening of psycho-social services; an additional 130 public schools were provided with the services of the Resource Officer Service (588 schools in total); active Resource Officers were retrained with an updated remote learning module; new regional offices of the Resource Officer Service were opened in Akhaltsikhe and Zugdidi; the Psycho-Social Service Center of the Resource Officer Service underwent complete rehabilitation; psycho-social service centers were opened in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Samegrelo; 8 regional centers of the Planning and Analysis Department of the Resource Officer Service were established; a mechanism for the operation of a mobile team during crises in schools was created;

I would also like to note that from January 1, 2019, the remuneration of Resource Officers increased by 50%; salaries were also increased for school safety-responsible persons retrained by the Resource Officer Service; beneficiaries in need of psychiatric care will be provided with psychiatric services free of charge and without a queue; a long-term consistent program for the prevention of bullying in the general educational space has been developed. Programs for the prevention of drug abuse have been developed,”– stated Mikheil Chkhenkeli during his speech in Parliament.