Ekaterine Dgebuadze, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, introduced the activities carried out for the students with special educational needs to the representatives of non-governmental organizations operating in Georgia and discussed future projects with the delegates.

Since taking care of students with special educational needs is one of the main priorities of the Ministry, the Ministry naturally faced new challenges, due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Subsequently, the provision of special resources became more relevant. The Ministry is fully aware of the nature of various requirements and constraints, when planning the distance learning for students with special needs.

To this end, the Ministry has developed several recommendations for parents and special teachers. Creative and developmental components have been prepared that will guide parents, tutors, and special teachers to facilitate the development of various skills at home and offer students simple, interesting, and developing activities.

A recommendation video has been prepared for special education teachers and specialists involved in inclusive education to promote distance learning for students with special educational needs: https://www.facebook.com/MESGeorgia/videos/9286030476008556

Moreover, the Ministry's multidisciplinary team continues to support public schools. Team members oversee communicating with special schools, teachers, and students with special needs to provide with recommendations, guidelines, resources, and news regarding distance learning. Distance learning includes promoting mathematics, storytelling, writing, reading, or acquiring cognitive skills.

Furthermore, project "TV School” also promotes the education of students with special needs. Translation of all lessons is provided by a sign language interpreter, in conjunction with reviewing the recommendations of special teachers and psychologists when planning the lessons.

To promote the development of academic and cognitive skills, videos were created about the activities to be performed at home, which are broadcasted in the form of partitions on TV School. The videos are also intended for parents as a guide to help develop their children's cognitive capabilities.

TV school remains extremely valuable for the homeless children, who spend most of their time at day care centers at this stage.

During the meeting with the Deputy Minister, in addition to the ongoing projects, the existing challenges and plans were discussed. Representatives of non-governmental organizations positively assessed the efficiency and effectiveness of the activities carried out by the Ministry.