Civil education becomes obligatory for Georgian youth

Georgia’s youth will soon be taught a new school subject that teaches them about their roles and responsibilities in society.

A pilot of the new subject of civil education, Society and Me, will be taught in a select group of schools in the 2015-2016 school year before becoming mandatory to all school-aged students during the 2016-2017 school year and beyond.

The new course will teach students about healthy lifestyles, development of social skills, tolerance, environmental protection, security and violence issues and about other important societal issues.

The course was presented today by the Department of National Curriculum of Georgia’s Ministry of Education and Science and attended by Deputy Minister Lia Gigauri, representatives of international and local non-governmental organisations and envoys of higher and secondary educational institutions.

At the ceremony Gigauri spoke of the current developments to the country’s curriculum and noted several steps needed to be taken before the civic education course launched in full next academic year.

We finished the first revision steps towards our goal. Today was the final review of the course standards and hearing of specialists’ opinions. Now the following aim is to announce a competition for the textbooks,” she said.

The course, initially open to students in 3rd and 4th grades, will focus on the civic education of students, which was an important component for their comprehensive development as individuals with high education, contributing to future progress of society, noted the Ministry.

Gigauri noted the aim was to expand the program in future years and deliver the program to all school-aged students in the future.