Italian In Georgian Schools

The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Mikhail Batiashvili, and the Italian Ambassador to Georgia, Antonio Enrico Bartoli, presented a new program “Italian as a second language”.

Students will be able to learn Italian as a second foreign language in 2018-2019, the first foreign language in Georgian schools being English. This was made possible thanks to a memorandum on cooperation in the field of general education, which was previously drawn up by the Georgian Ministry of Education and the Italian Foreign Ministry. With this document, the parties agreed to implement joint projects and initiatives in those educational institutions that are interested in teaching students the Italian language.

"Learning new languages, in addition to acquiring communication skills, provides familiarization with the culture and civilization of the country, bringing people closer together and developing relations," Batiashvili said.

The standard program of Italian as a second language has already been developed, and the teaching of the Italian language had already begun in 20 schools of the country, among them in 13 state and 7 private schools.

The Italians provided schools with textbooks, retrained teachers and allocated additional funds for the teachers' salaries.

By Shawn Wayne