By the President’s initiative, the physical culture classes will be replaced with the sports lessons at public schools from the next academic year. 48 pilot schools have been selected throughout the whole country in order to launch the piloting process and the development among the schoolchildren at the basic and secondary levels. The sport base already existed at these selected schools, so the beginning of the new project is possible there.  The Minister of Education and Science, Dimitri Shashkini, the Minister of Culture, Monuments Protection and Sport, Nikoloz Rurua, as well as the Chairman of the Department of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia, David Namgalauri paid a visit to Tbilisi Public School №47, one of the pilot schools. Replacing the physical culture classes with the sports lessons is underway at this school. The youngsters are interested in basketball and “Khridol”. They are getting ready to take the participation in the basketball competition.

The school competition will start between the pilot schools soon in following fields of sport: football, basketball and volley-ball. The schools will choose one of these fields independently. The tourney will be held in several levels among the pilot schools. The girls’ teams as well as the boys’ teams will participate in it. The Ministry of Education and Science, together with the Ministry of Culture, Monuments Protection and Sport and the Department of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia will organize the competition.

The sport lessons and the physical education will be integrated into the National Curriculum from 2010-1011 academic years. The project will be implemented in all public schools. The appropriate educational program will be developed, the teachers will be trained and the school infrastructure will be refurbished.

The sport lessons will be introduced at schools according to the schoolchildren and the teachers’ desires and abilities.  The commission of strategy development of the physical and sports education of the Ministry worked on this issue.  The representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Monuments Protection and Sport, the Parliament of Georgia, Athletics Federation and National Federation of Handball, Municipal Department of Social Services and Culture, Tbilisi State Medical University, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, also the representatives of Rugby Development Committee and Rugby Union Team Committee, the National Curriculum and Assessment Center, the Professional Council of Sport Dancing of Georgia, Faculty of Business and Law of Ilia State University, Education and Science Infrastructure Development Agency were invited as the members of the committee.

The President’s initiative of replacing physical culture classes with sports lessons envisages sports popularization among youngsters. Besides, 1569 gyms and 2015 stadiums function at 2179 public schools, the sports lessons are not very popular. Therefore, the physical culture classes will be replaced with sports lessons in order to make the process more interesting and emotional.