Changes made in teachers professional development and career advancement scheme

To prevent the spread of coronavirus, based on the decision of the Inter-Agency Coordinating Council, headed by the Prime Minister, education has shifted to a distance learning format. Consequently, teachers faced significant challenges at general education level. Although the transition from classrooms to online learning required a great deal of effort, teachers successfully managed to cope with the change and have mastered virtual learning with the use of new technology, resulting in a completed semester.

The Ministry considered the specifics of remote work for teachers, the time-consuming process of transformation from classrooms to virtual space and made several amendments in the teacher professional development and career advancement scheme.

Under these changes, the practicing teacher exams will be postponed and will be conducted by the National Center for Assessment and Examinations in Autumn.

 According to the changes in the scheme:

· In 2020, for the first time, special education teachers have become part of a professional development and career advancement scheme and have been given the status of practicing teachers.

· Practicing teachers who registered for the April 30 teacher's exam, are given the opportunity to pass the test in the fall of 2020.

· Practicing teachers who have a certified subject and professional competence and have 1 to 5 credit points left to raise their status will have the right to pass the training module in the field of any relevant subject and accumulate the remaining 1 to 5 points up to 19 credit points.

· Practicing teachers who fail to improve their status in the fall of 2020, will have their contracts extended by the school administration until the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.

· To support those who wish to obtain a teacher status, The Ministry is giving a unique opportunity, to those individuals who have registered for the exam by April 30, 2020, to pass the test in summer, which will be held from July 22 to July 30.

· To ensure the safety of the examiners, all the recommendations developed by the Ministry of IDPs, Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia will be followed. Testing will be conducted in one session in the first half of the day.

· Examination centers will be opened in the following cities: Batumi, Poti, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, Kutaisi, Akhaltsikhe, Gori, Tbilisi, Rustavi, Telavi. All examination centers will have a medical facility equipped with first aid kits. An ambulance, rescue service and patrol police will be mobilized in the vicinity of the centers. In 2020, up to 12,000 teachers will be involved in the examination process.