The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli held a meeting with the World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus, Sebastian Molineus, and discussed the ongoing joint project: "Innovation, Inclusive Education and Quality" and prospects in all areas of education.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli thanked Sebastian Molineus for the fruitful cooperation and noted that the World Bank has been one of the main partner organizations of the Ministry for several years, with the support of which several key successful projects in the education system of Georgia have been implemented.

The Minister noted that despite the existing challenges, the joint project of the World Bank and the Ministry worth $102.7 million - "Innovation, Inclusive Education and Quality" has not been suspended. On the contrary, the pandemic further highlighted the needs and the importance of introducing technology at schools. It is true that the Ministry has been working in this direction for several years, but the introduction of distance learning has taken this process to a more active phase.

Moreover, Mikheil Chkhenkeli briefed Sebastian Molineus on the decisions and the action plan of the Coordinating Council, which envisages the return of the learning process in the secondary schools to the natural environment - the classrooms.

The Minister noted that in light of the pandemic, special attention was paid to the model of evaluation system tailored to the interests of students - the developmental assessment, which will remain an integral part of the system even after the pandemic. Also, additional electronic resources for complex assignments were created to develop students' creative thinking.

During the meeting, the parties also discussed the access to quality education and promoting the qualification of teachers working in the system.

Furthermore, Mikheil Chkhenkeli noted that international support is crucial in the process of increasing the quality and accessibility of education in Georgia. Accordingly, the Ministry cooperates with several donor organizations in this direction and in order to achieve effective results, the Ministry will ensure coordinated cooperation with those organizations.

Additionally, Mikheil Chkhenkeli spoke about the new model of financing higher education and noted that its public discussion will begin in the near future. The new funding model envisages determining the amount of basic funding for state higher education institutions using a formula based on "counting criteria", and will provide targeted specialization indicators to support regional universities, which provide funding for priority areas in the region. In addition, special approaches will be taken into account when funding higher education institutions specialized in Art.

For his part, Sebastian Molineus noted that the joint project of the World Bank and the Ministry "Innovation, Inclusive Education and Quality" is on the right path of development and once again expressed readiness to support the challenges in the education system in various directions.

The meeting held at the Ministry was attended by First Deputy Minister Ekaterine Dgebuadze and Nino Kutateladze, Leading Education Specialist of the World Bank Georgia Office.