After a small group of protesters marched in Tbilisi on 10 July against what they claim is ‘sex education’ in schools, Georgia’s Education Minister Aleksandre Jejelava said that the ministry would ensure ‘nothing unacceptable’ would be taught.
The protests were sparked by a new citizenship class titled ‘Society and I’, which is due to be taught in schools starting in September. According to the official curricula, the class will discuss family, the school environment, friends, education, media and information, Georgia, and the state.
Jejelava said that the class will go ahead, but that they would ensure that ‘nothing unacceptable for students’ families will end up in the textbook’. The minister claimed that the content of the textbook for the class was consulted on with ‘all sides’, including clergy.
Protesters began demonstrating in front of Ministry of Education, later moving to Georgia’s parliament. They claimed that the new textbook would ‘corrupt children’.
‘They want to corrupt the upcoming generations, they want to discuss sex with them. [They will discuss] how a man should become a woman, how a woman should become a man. After they grow up, they can choose to be a man or a woman — that’s what they will teach kids’, one of the protesters told local news outlet Liberali.
Protesters said they would do everything to fight against the ‘genderisation of schools’.
Jejelava reaffirmed that the quotes cited by protesters were ‘from an unknown book, which is unacceptable’.
‘Society and I’ will be taught to third and fourth year students, while another subject — ‘Our Georgia’ — will be introduced for fifth and sixth year students.
Georgia, where the Orthodox Church is a hugely influential force, has tried to implement sex education in schools on a number of occasions, but has failed every time after widespread public backlash.
Georgia’s Ministry of Education has withheld full accreditation from Ilia State University (ISU), with critics attributing the move to the university’s staff and students’ opposition to the controversial foreign agent law.
On Friday, Ilia State University reported that the Authorisation Council for Higher Education Institutions had granted them authorisation ‘with the condition of monitoring after a year’.
According to the university, this decision was made despite having received positive
A July decision by the Armenian Government to reduce mandatory Russian classes in schools has led to debate in the country, after a report by Sputnik Armenia suggested Armenia may intend to phase out compulsory Russian from schools entirely.
On Friday, the Russian state-owned news agency published a report about the decision citing anonymous teachers and education specialists.
The report was misinterpreted by some online who thought the government was completely removing Russian language fro
A lecturer at the Yerevan State University (YSU) has accused the university of firing him and others for participating in opposition protests.
On Monday, Abraham Gasparyan, a lecturer at the university’s International Relations faculty, said YSU had fired him over his political stances calling his dismissal ‘baseless, ignorant, and undignified’.
Gasparyan, who also hosts a show on opposition-leaning ABC Media, claimed that around ten of his colleagues had been fired for similar reasons and
A proposal to change the name of a school subject, Armenian History, to the History of Armenia has stirred controversy in the country, despite government reassurances that the curriculum would remain unchanged.
During a meeting of the ruling Civil Contract party last week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that a group of teachers and scientists had appealed to the Ministry of Education to change the subject’s name.
Pashinyan stated that he agreed with the proposal, adding that he ‘blame