The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli, while presenting concrete plans for solving general education challenges, focused on student evaluation at the end of the year. According to the Minister, the new model of student evaluation, in conjunction with the process of determining the annual score implies an individual approach to each student, while maintaining and protecting the academic standard.

For the 2019-2020 academic year, two mandatory forms of assessment have been identified - developmental and descriptive evaluation.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli: “Together with leading experts for distance learning, we have developed an interesting model of assessment based on international experience. The main philosophy of this model is that it is focused on each student and at the same time maintains the academic standard.

Developmental assessment is proven worldwide, used in leading countries such as Finland and Estonia. It allows the teacher to deeply assess the student’s academic dynamics, their strengths, and weaknesses.

Likewise, we have also developed several alternative ways of evaluation. To encourage school autonomy and the degree of their independence, the schools will evaluate their student's achievements themselves.”

In the developmental assessment, the teacher describes the developmental dynamics of each student during the school year, which helps to improve the quality of learning and the ability to plan an effective lesson dynamic for the next school year.

Otherwise, the descriptive assessment monitors the quality of teaching in relation to the objectives set out in the National Curriculum and sets out to evaluate the student's level of knowledge with appropriate scores.

For more effective student evaluation, the Ministry has developed alternative ways:

-         The student annual score for the 2019-2020 academic year is determined by the score obtained in the first semester

-         The student annual score for the 2019-2020 academic year is determined by the score obtained in the first semester, and based on the average score calculated from knowledge gained during the distance learning process and the 6-week period of the second semester

-         Since the Determinant assessment for a 5th grade student starts from the second semester, the annual 2019-2020 score will be calculated based on the knowledge gained during the distance learning process and the 6-week period of the second semester

-         If the student does not have an assessment for the first semester of the 2019-2020 academic year, the annual 2019-2020 score will be determined based on the knowledge gained during the distance learning process and the 6-week period of the second semester

Mikheil Chkhenkeli emphasized that the Ministry considers distance learning as an opportunity to continue teaching efficiently. That is why the new model of evaluation developed by the Ministry is in full compliance with the reality in the conditions of a pandemic.