Georgia Has Taken Important Steps Towards Enhancing Its Education System

Last week, the Georgian National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement visited Estonia to discuss ongoing project activities concerning development of a quality assessment system for general education in Georgia and ways of cooperating in the future.

Since the beginning of the project, the Georgian centre has taken concrete steps towards identifying existing problems in its general education system and developing framework regulations and methodological guidelines to combat the weaknesses.

The key findings about the existing problems have been that the schools do not have a written curriculum development methodology and there lacks an adequate understanding of the concept of school curriculums. Also, the challenge for most schools is to provide professional development for staff, based on identified needs.

At the end of April 2023, framework regulations and methodological guidelines were developed to combat the aforementioned weaknesses:

• Devise a long-term strategy in school strategic planning
• School curriculum development
• Student assessment
• Mechanisms for student’s rights protection
• School-based teacher’s professional development

“Educational development activities are often either completely neglected or left behind in the pre-assessment activities related to joining the EU. By becoming a member of the EU, the country also enters the European educational landscape, where agreed principles, agreements and standards apply. The quality of education is one of the most important foundations and standards of education. Therefore, it is worthy of recognition that Georgian colleagues systematically contribute to the development of this field. Improving education is crucial to improving the economy, as well as society at large, ranging from increasing the capacity of various professions to better civic participation and civil society,” said Kristi Kulu, Programme Manager of Education and Entrepreneurship at ESTDEV.

In August 2023, public discussions were held and relevant stakeholders gave feedback and reflected on the guidelines. At the end of September, trainings are planned for 15 school representatives and in December, a final conference will be held where the final project results are introduced.

“We have achieved our planned activities so far according to the project’s action plan. Nowadays, we are working and continuing our efforts to finish the project activities by the end of 2023. The system of general education now has the 6 guides of school processes which will make it easy for the school society to further develop the internal quality assurance system inside the schools. This will positively affect the general education institutions in Georgia and enhance the quality in the schools,” said Lasha Zivzivadze, Head of Planning, Research and International Relations Department at the Georgian National Centre for Educational Quality Enhancement.

The Georgian centre also suggested future cooperation opportunities with ESTDEV which include:

• Continuing the selected 6 business processes of the school internal quality development and the creation of new guidelines for the 6 selected internal quality assurance mechanisms.
• Organising peer review visits in Georgian schools to ensure that the best practices are shared in the correct way.
• The creation of self-study digital classes for the school principals and quality development staff members.

In February, ESTDEV and the Georgian Centre signed a cooperation agreement, according to which ESTDEV contributed 72 100 EUR to the development of a quality assessment system for general education in Georgia. In the project, ESTDEV mediated Estonia’s successful experience in reforming the education sector and empowering the school system to assess the quality and effectiveness of educational activities.