On October 5th, the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakshvili opened the newly built Teacher’s House.
The purpose of the Teacher’s House is to serve teachers 24 hours a day, including such support as training programs in professional development and all school subjects. Further uses of the center include financial and leagal conselations for school teachers and principals. Presentations and discussions forums on the latest publications of educational literature, model lessons, master classes, and online conferences will all be arranged in this new facility.
A separate room has been designed for child care in the case that teachers must bring their children with them when attending trainings.
During the opening ceremonies, President Saakashvili with the Minister Dimitri Shashkini visited the Teacher's House's modern laboratory. This laboratory is a present from the German Company PHYWE and comprises the equipments for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. It enables the users to conduct several experiments simultaneously.
The President and the Minister also visited the modern library equipped with necessary inventories and literature. The library also offers an online service to the teachers.
On the same day, the President attended an online conference held with the participation of Kutaisi Z. Zhvania School of Public Administration and First Experimental School.
Supporting teacher professional development is one of the top priorities of current education reforms. Teacher certification examinations are voluntary until 2014. Certified teachers receive additional payment to their monthly salary, amounting to 75 GEL. Those who pass an exam in English Language and Computer Technology receive 200 GEL as an additional payment, and qualified mentor teachers have 180 GEL added as a surplus to their salary. As an additional incentive, the 25% of teachers with the highest scores on their certification exams receive 1000 GEL as monthly salary.
The event was attended by certified teachers, representatives of Georgian government and diplomatic corps.
