The Ministry of Education and Science, which is conducting education reform in Georgia, is responsible for promoting intercultural education. National goals for education have been adopted in Georgia in October 2004, stating that the development of intercultural skills for graduates of secondary level education is one of its priorities. The Law on Secondary Education, adopted in April 2005, grants rights to all schools to teach in minority languages and to teach the history of minorities without any discrimination regarding the content or the financial support offered.
In 2008, the new Strategic Vision Project – the National Vision and Action Plan on Civil Integration and Tolerance – identified objectives for the education and culture of minorities.
Intercultural education is a part of the National Curriculum of Georgia and is integrated into teaching, mainly in the subjects of Georgian literature, social sciences and foreign languages.
One of the national education goals in Georgia is to educate tolerant citizens who know how to effectively communicate with diverse individuals and groups.
There are several topics included into the teaching of the arts / music through the general school curriculum covering the artistic experiences from different parts of the world and of the minorities in Georgia.
One of the aims of the introduction of the separate subject, “Civic Education in Georgia” was to increase the student’s sensitivity towards the knowledge of human rights, citizenship, world religions and influences of various cultures on society.
The public movement “Multinational Georgia” has developed an alternative package of recommendations and has introduced intercultural education as a part of the general school curricula, within the civil education discipline.
In Georgia, there are public primary and secondary schools for minorities (Azeri, Armenian, Russian), where the Georgian language is taught as the official language. The publication of textbooks for minorities is provided by state procurement.
In accordance with the Culture Strategy 2025 one of the strategic goals is “Awareness Raising and Education”.
“Goal: Culture and creativity is integrated across all levels of the education system and the public is aware of its importance.”
In accordance with the Government Programme 2021-2024 approved in December 2020:
- A different model of bilingual teaching will be introduced on a large scale for students of non-Georgian language schools.
- The policy of integration of people left out of education in the educational process will be defined, and an alternative curriculum will be developed for them.
- A Georgian language distance learning course will be available for Diaspora representatives;
- Awareness raising activities will be implemented to promote inclusive education.
On November 21, 2023, the first stage of work on changes to the National Curriculum, initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, was completed, as the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia stated. The changes, the Ministry says, are aimed at giving private and public schools more autonomy.
“Changes have been made to all components of learning-teaching, planning and management, including learning-teaching principles, plans, and content components, as well as teaching methods, assessment, and organization of the learning process,” – said the Ministry, adding that all components are aimed at supporting general education institutions and giving schools more opportunities to plan a more student-oriented learning process.
The Ministry reformulated the objectives of the National Curriculum, and the goals for each subject group. Private schools will be allowed to decide for themselves which subjects to teach to achieve the goals. Schools will also decide independently on the methodology.
Previously, ethnic minority students could only study their mother tongue if there were ten applicants. This rule has been removed in such a way that from now on, every ethnic minority will be able to get the opportunity to study his or her mother tongue individually.
In addition, the textbook agreement rule was approved, allowing private and public schools to use unmarked textbooks, if agreed with the Ministry.
At the same time, according to the Ministry, the process of revising the subject standards is underway and the formation of subject groups has begun, involving teachers, representatives of the academic community and psychologists. The revision process was completed in the spring of 2024.
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