The Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Aleksandre Jejelava introduced the main accents of the news of the system to journalists and answered their questions on topical issues.

At the meeting lasting for several hours, the Minister talked about the reforms, the part of which has already begun in the system, part of them will be introduced in the near future, and in the end, their results will be reflected in improvement of the quality of education.

Mr. Aleksandre Jejelava paid special attention to the teachers’ professional development scheme, the new scheme provided the teachers with a wide variety of alternatives to enhance qualification and motivation, which they had not enjoyed before. Accordingly, 800 teachers were advanced in the scheme in 2016, however by 2017, the Minister suggests that approximately 4500 teachers will have the status of senior teacher and the same pace will continue in the following years.

The problem regarding training, creating a barrier to the teachers, will be completely eliminated. In parallel with the National Center for Teacher Professional Development, higher education institutions and leading schools will be involved in teachers’ training.

Within the framework of the ongoing reform, duration of hours will be increased for the teachers – in addition to the fact that the number of pupils has been increasing significantly since 2012, free lessons will be conducted in schools, which is additional 4-5 hours for teachers. It is important that within the scope of free lessons, attention should be paid to a healthy lifestyle, literacy, interactive activity and art, i.e. the topics that are very interesting and necessary for young people in 7^th and 8^th classes.

Huge attention will be paid to introduction of a healthy lifestyle in schools. To this end, the sports federations will train the physical education teachers of all schools.

The important factor for the schools will be protection of hygiene. Besides, new project on care of schools will have significant function, that has not existed before. For this purpose, the separate budget will be allocated for the welfare of the school, in order to preserve the modern infrastructure in schools, so that schools can serve many generations.

The Minister spoke about the positive results of the distance learning introduced for the children living abroad, which will be further updated. He has evaluated the step made towards science as a tremendous achievement, according to which Georgia has become the associate country of “Horizon 2020” and despite short period of time, the specific positive results already exist.