Georgian School Kids to Get New Curriculum, Textbooks

The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia is writing new curriculum and commissioning new textbooks for Georgian public schools.

In 2018, the National Curriculum was revised for 7th grade, in 2019 it will be revised for 8th and 9th grades, and in 2020, for younger students. After 2020, a tender will be announced for companies to produce new textbooks to suit the new curriculum.

Mariam Chikobava, head of the Department of Preschool and General Education, stressed during a special briefing on Wednesday that the terms of the competiton to produce the textbooks will be made clear at the beginning of the process and there will be no subsequent major changes in the curriculum.

The selection process for textbook publishers will be completely transparent. The textbooks will be evaluated in several directions: Compliance with the National Curriculum; Content; Structure; Language; Compliance with legal and ethical norms; Compliance with the principles of sustainable development.

On the basis of the ongoing reforms in the education system, the focus of the new National Curriculum is for students to not only memorize content but be able to apply critical thinking, research, creative, and cooperative skills.

Consequently, along with other components, special attention will be paid to the quality of textbooks. It is important that the requirements for textbook authors are clear.

Publishers will have more time to write their textbooks - more than four months for the 7th grade textbook. Subject consultations will be intensively conducted with textbook authors to ensure they understand the criteria for learning and evaluating the standards of the specific subject. Representatives from governmental and non-governmental organizations will also conduct workshops for authors, as it is important for the Ministry that they will not have any questions.

The new national curriculum will be reduced in size, becoming more flexible, clear, and concise. The Ministry emphasizes that it is looking for a good balance of quality and price. The price should be lower than previous textbooks and the content should be higher quality.

For more information, see: http://mes.gov.ge/s/c5n2A 

By Samantha Guthrie

Photo: Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport