Amendment in the law on the status of schoolchild

Newspaper “24 Saati” - November 2

Magda Lekiashvili

Parliament of Georgia is debating on the new amendment in the Law on Education of Georgia. This new amendment will enable the schoolchildren to continue the teaching process that has been terminated under any objective circumstances (such as studying abroad, illness etc.).  The school administration will be obliged to retain the status of schoolchild.

As the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science stated, procedure of retaining and retrieving the status of schoolchild has not existed before. There were cases when the schoolchildren were missing classes for months and in some cases for years. As a result different sanctions were imposed on them. Some of them were expelled from schools. New amendment that was formulated by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia will regulate this process. Now the schoolchild will be able to appeal to school administration on retaining the status of schoolchildren.

As MP Gia Khuroshvili stated, by the Constitution of Georgia every person has the right to receive general education. This means that every schoolchild has the right to terminate his studying process under any objective circumstances and to retain the status of schoolchild and later continue studying and retrieve the status.

This is not the only innovation in the education field. In 2010-2011 Academic Year, Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia reflected “Abituri” hours in the National Curriculum for 12^th graders and it envisaged repeating the covered material for the High School Exams. “Abituri” hours were given in all subjects ((Georgian as the second language for non-Georgian schools), mathematics, foreign language, history of Georgia and the world history, geography, physics, chemistry and biology) the schoolchildren have to pass during the High School exams. Last year, schoolchildren were able to attend these classes voluntarily. From new academic year, attendance at “Abituri” hours will become mandatory.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia was one of the first Ministries in the country to present the new free online assistance service. Citizens are able to send the questions to the Ministry online via the official web-page of the Ministry – www. mes.gov.ge. Operators of the Ministry receive more than 3000 questions every week.  As Minister says, it is very important technological innovation and it helps citizens to receive the answers to their questions directly from the Ministry.