Ekaterine Dgebuadze, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, considers the increase in the number of infected people across the country and urges every citizen to strictly follow the protocol established by the Ministry of Health so that students can complete the second semester of 2020-2021 in a natural learning environment.

In this regard, Ekaterine Dgebuadze spoke at a special briefing and noted that to prevent the virus, the Ministry will continue to do its utmost to maintain a healthy environment at schools. In particular, in addition to assisting the Ministry in equipping schools with the necessary resources, the Minister of Education and Science, the First Deputy Minister, staff of the Department of General Education and local educational resource centres will continue to systematically monitor schools. At the same time, in accordance with the protocol established by the Ministry of Health, mandatory testing of teachers and school representatives will be continued once every two weeks.

Moreover, the First Deputy Minister noted that schools strictly follow the protocol established by the health sector. This is evidenced by the weekly statistics that the Ministry proactively publishes to the general public. From the date of resumption of studies to the present date, the difference between the percentages of infection spread from week to week is minimal and did not exceed 0.1%.

Furthermore, according to Ekaterine Dgebuadze, as Minister Mikheil Chkhenkeli has repeatedly stated, it is important to maintain the result achieved through joint efforts.

Over the past week, monitoring and mandatory testing across the country have confirmed the virus in 0.1% of teachers and 0.02% of students across the country. Out of 2085 public schools, there are 52 public schools and 121 separate classes who switched to full distance learning. Out of 218 private schools, there are only 2 schools and 17 separate classes that switched to remote learning.

Additionally, at this stage there are 91 teachers across the country who switched to a full-time remote learning.

As has been the case so far, point restrictions on schools will continue in case the virus is detected, and the school will act in accordance with the protocol established by the Ministry of Health.