The Minister of education and Science of Georgia, Tamar Sanikidze attended to vocational education testing at community college ‘Mermisi’, where the students with special needs and disabilities were tested.

The amount of students with special needs is growing year by year.  From the autumn semester admission in 2013 till today the number of enrolled students with special educational needs are 246. In 2012 their number was only 22, in the autumn of 2014 109 students applied for the programs.

This year, 204 students with disabilities applied for the vocational education programs. Out of the 185 students will sit for alternative testing and will be enrolled in different institutions.

It is important to emphasize that in 2013 students with special needs were enrolled only in vocational education institutions. As for the admission of this year, applicants have applied for 22 institutions up to 50 educational programs.

It should be mentioned that vocational education institutions start to provide the students with special needs with the service of all necessary additional help of specialists (specialist of inclusive education, sign language interpreter, the center of mobility and orientation, personal assistant and etc.) and with other material resources .

The project named ‘implementation of inclusive education in education and training system’ is implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia by the help of Ministry of Education and Research of Norway. The aim of mentioned initiative is to increase the availability of vocational education for people with special needs and disabilities as well as to organize learning process in a way that fits their needs.