The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia has completed the process of textbook approval for some elementary level subjects, and basic level textbooks of grades VII-VIII. Schools will have the opportunity to choose the approved textbooks from June 22 to July 5, and as soon as the books are selected, the chosen ones will be printed and distributed to all public schools.

According to the decree, issued in 2019 by the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Georgia, the process of textbook approval for the VIII grade will include some significant amendments:

-          Authors of textbooks that have passed the first stage of evaluation had the opportunity to meet with reviewers and, in addition to written comments and suggestions, receive detailed recommendations directly from them to eliminate existing disparities

-          To increase the quality of the books, the passing threshold was raised to 90% instead of 79%

-          The ratio of quality to price has changed in favor of quality (The ratio was 90% - quality and 10% - price, this year the ratio signifies 95% - quality and 5% - price)

-          The one-time fee for manual and electronic book distribution has doubled, in conjunction with doubling the fee to print a student’s book version

The new textbooks were evaluated in terms of compliance with the National Curriculum, as well as in terms of content, structure and language, legal and ethical norms, as well as the principles of sustainable development.

Additionally, all textbooks were evaluated by a group of independent experts; The group of assessors included both practicing teachers and a representative of the academic circle, a curriculum expert, a psychologist, a philologist, and a human rights specialist.

In cooperation with the Ministry and the Public Defender's Office, specialists were involved in the approval process based on the recommendation provided by the Public Defender, who evaluated the textbooks based on the following principles: To what extent is gender-balance maintained in texts and illustrations, how the textbook is free from stereotypical attitudes, discriminatory elements on ethnic, religious and other grounds, and to what extent are the principles of sustainable development taken into account and so forth.

Out of 58 applications in various subjects, only 30 textbooks were eventually approved.

Approved textbooks could not be selected in the following subjects: Geography (VIII grade); Russian (VIII grade); Georgian as a second language (VII grade).

The subjects that did not receive any applications, the approval process will be re-announced next year.

An active cooperation between the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia and publishing houses continues. At this point, most publishers have temporarily made the e-textbooks available to teachers and students online.

It is noteworthy that the Ministry has already started analyzing the completed grading process to identify strengths and weaknesses and further improve the textbook evaluation system and is ready to receive specific suggestions, remarks and recommendations from publishers, authors and other stakeholders.