Nunu Mitskevichi, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, together with Beka Peradze, Head of the Labor Inspection Department, held a meeting with representatives of Georgian state and private universities and personally introduced them to the decisions of the Interagency Council.
Nunu Mitskevichi noted that the activities of higher education institutions will be restored in two stages. In particular, from March 1 onwards, universities will be able to conduct clinical, practical, laboratory components and examinations in a non-distance format. As for the second phase, from March 15, higher education institutions will be able to fully resume their activities and resume the learning process in their auditoriums.
The Deputy Minister stressed that the choice for universities at both stages will be voluntary and they will be able to make specific decisions individually in consultation with the Ministry.
Moreover, Nunu Mitskevichi thanked the rectors for their rapid adaptation to the new reality in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that the higher education institutions, despite numerous challenges, had successfully managed to organize the distance learning process for their students. Additionally, according to the deputy Minister, in terms of quality assurance in online education, higher education institutions were guided by the guidelines for internal quality assurance in e-learning developed in 2018 by the Association of European Higher Education Quality Assurance Agencies (ENQA).
The Deputy Minister emphasized the need to ensure a safe environment at universities and noted that taking care of the health of each student and academic staff is a top priority of the Ministry. To this end, the Ministry provided special recommendations to higher education institutions in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Health.