Active sports in Georgian schools will become mandatory

From 2023, active physical education and sports lessons will become mandatory in Georgian schools.

This is part of the government’s physical activity strategy, which the CDC is working on in line with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. The document will take its final form by the end of this year, and its implementation will begin in 2023.

As WHO representative Kakha Gvinianidze told IPN, according to the draft strategy, schools will also monitor the quality and regularity of sports activities and student attendance.

“According to the draft strategy, the active implementation of physical education and sports lessons in schools will become mandatory. The draft strategy also provides for the implementation in schools of monitoring how well and regularly this lesson is conducted and what is the indicator of student attendance,” Gvinianidze said.

As for specialists in physical education and sports, as Gvinianidze noted, there is also a problem of their shortage in Georgia.

“This is a first order problem and cannot be ignored. As far as I know, the Ministry of Education plans to resolve this issue to some extent and equip the infrastructure,” Gvinianidze said, adding that curricula are being prepared for the retraining of specialists, which will be offered to universities, and incentive events are also planned.