Students to Return to Universities on October 19

Georgia’s universities will continue classroom learning on October 19. This will include all but the colleges in Adjara, the hardest-hit region in terms of coronavirus. Students in Adjara will continue studies online even beyond October 19, Minister of Education Mikheil Chkhenkeli announced after today’s meeting of the Interagency Coordination Council.

School children in grades 1-6 will be returning to schools on October 1 in Tbilisi, and every big city of the regions except Adjara. In Poti and Gori, all school children in grades 1-12 will go back to school. It has yet to be stated when pupils in higher grades will re-enter their classrooms in other cities and regions of Georgia. Chkhenkeli has promised to make an official announcement regarding the subject in the near future.

Kindergartens will be welcoming children back on October 12, countrywide, except in Adjara.

In order to curb the spread of the virus, most educational institutions in the country switched to a remote learning mode back in the spring. Because of the second wave of the pandemic, which seems larger than the first, the Georgian government is taking time reopening schools. All educational institutions were meant to welcome back students on September 15, but since mid-September, Georgia has been registering from 150 to 290 coronavirus cases, most of them in Adjara. Today alone, the country confirmed 298 COVID cases, 175 of them detected in Adjara.

By Nini Dakhundaridze

In the photo: Mikheil Chkhenkeli