During the united committee session, the Acting Minister of Education and Science of Georgia - Mikheil Chkhenkeli, introduced the amendments to the Georgian legislation, in order to ensure the safe learning environment

According to the minister, a new document on the Safe School Strategy has already been developed, which includes activities focused on increasing awareness on bullying and violence, in conjunction with designating numerous preventive approaches. Additionally, various amendments are implemented in the draft legislation for the addition of school security officers.

Mikheil Chkhenkeli emphasized that, in order to identify potential risks in some timely effective manner, teachers, school administrators, security officers, and psychologists should undergo a special training course. Additionally, antibullying peer group educational project has started and media education programs will be introduced from September, 2018.

Crisis intervention groups are created on the basis of experience psychological service. A 24-hour psychological aid hotline and interactive web site is launched, which raises the awareness in identifying various forms of aggression at its initial stage. It should be noted that psychological human capital will be added to the Resource Centers across Georgia.

In collaboration with the leading psychologists of the country, specific recommendations have been elaborated, which were distributed to students, teachers and parents. Moreover, the special project – Listen to the Students, has been introduced and as of today – 70,000 students have already reflected their views regarding the ongoing strategy.

According to the Minister, a special agreement between the school and the parent will be signed, which will oblige the parties to jointly deal with the risks of violence. In Addition, to promote a healthy lifestyle, schools will pay a great deal of attention towards the advancement of adolescent physical development. Consequently, the budget for organizing various sports events has been doubled.