Georgia has trained about 2,000 teachers in environmental and agricultural education this year as part of a program to integrate these issues into the primary school curriculum.
The “Environmental and Agrarian Education at School” program is implemented by the Center for Environmental Information and Education of the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture.
The centre provides teachers with certificates and textbooks that cover essential aspects of environmental and agricultural education, such as sustainable development, biodiversity protection, water resources protection, air pollution, climate change, natural hazards reduction, waste management, land management, desertification prevention, sustainable agriculture, food safety and quality.
The director of the centre, Tamar Aladashvili, met with some of the trained teachers and praised their involvement in the program.
“Training of the Center for Environmental Information and Education helps teachers implement various activities in the environmental and agricultural spheres of the learning process. It is welcome that educational sector representatives are actively involved in the training process,” Aladashvili said.
The Center for Environmental Information and Education of the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture started training teachers within the “Environmental and Agrarian Education at School” program in 2021.
The program started in 2021 and trained around 6,000 elementary school teachers. The program is part of Georgia’s efforts to align its legislation and policies with the European Union standards, as the country has been granted the status of a candidate for EU membership in December 2023.
A manual for teachers, “Environmental and Agrarian Education at School”, was prepared at the Environmental Information and Education Center.
Georgia is also part of the Eastern Partnership. This joint initiative aims to strengthen the political and economic relations between the EU and six countries in the region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The program will continue in the following years, reaching more teachers and students nationwide. The program also supports the development of environmental awareness and responsibility among Georgia’s young generation.
