To strengthen the social work component, the Mandaturi Service is getting acquainted with European experience

A one-week forum on strengthening the social work component in public schools of Georgia has opened.

Wim Hansens, Deputy Director and Senior Trainer at Don Bosco Groenveld School in Belgium, has visited Georgia specially for the forum. The Belgian consultant will share European experience and school social work practices with his Georgian colleagues.

The first working meeting, held at the Mandaturi Service (Educational Institution's Mandaturi Service), was attended by Ekaterine Dgebuadze, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia; Gela Geladze, Head of the Educational Institution's Mandaturi Service; and Ivone Gogoli, representative of the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia.

Within the framework of the one-week seminar, the Belgian consultant and Georgian experts plan to discuss the social work model based on the example of Belgium, specifically Flanders. Wim Hansens will also review the social work project developed by the Mandaturi Service and Georgian experts within the Georgian education system and present recommendations.

During the working meetings, the experts will also evaluate the results of the work carried out by the Mandaturi Service in Georgian pilot schools towards strengthening social worker intervention and discuss ways to overcome existing challenges. 

The social component was added to the Psycho-Social Service Center of the Educational Institution's Mandaturi Service in 2019. Alongside highly qualified psychologists, social workers are now also employed at the Center.