Another day of the Caravan in Georgia took place on 11 October in the Kvemo Kartli region, where several events for teachers, schoolchildren and youth activists took place.

Within the framework of the project film screening was organized in the Marneuli public school N2 by the civic education teacher Temur Sukashvili and the members of eco-club “For our future”: Nuivar Zeinalov, Tural Zargarov and Lana Songulia.

During the activity documentary films “16-year-old wives” and “Poonams` Fortune” were screened to the students and their parents. The main concept of the films is about the topic of early marriage, which is still is a crucial issue and an important challenge for the region. 

During the event, parents has discussed their role and the importance of the school and the society in the problem-solving process. They also remembered their past and underlined that they will not be willing and will not allow their daughters to get married and start a family in early ages.

“It was very interesting to lead the discussion, the parents were actively involved, and although everyone had the same position regarding the negative sides of early marriage. Bu despite this, the discussion was still quite diverse”

Lana Songulia 

Kvemo Kartli region was the host of other activities as well. Two workshops were held on the topic “Youth for Change – Advocacy Mechanisms and Good Practices” in two municipalities – Marneuli and Bolnisi.

14-20 years old youngsters attended the training in both locations where the following topics were discussed: civic participation forms, main aspects of the Association Agreement (AA), advocacy mechanisms, holding campaign – planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Towards the end of the workshop, participants had an opportunity to work on identifying a specific challenge in their communities. They brainstormed with the stakeholders as well as planned a campaign to address the identified issues.

“Youth in Bolnisi need such types of activities, as youth lack an opportunity where they can discuss such topics and exchange ideas”. 

Salome, 16 years old

Similar to the previous days, the main goal of the events was to increase the awareness about the civic values ​​and discuss the current situation regarding the teaching of civics in Georgia. For this reason, the meeting with civic education experts from Georgia and an international experts was organized.

Representatives of universities, schools and other educational actors took part in the discussion facilitated by civic education expert Natali Gamtsemlidze and Maka Bibileishvili.

During the meeting, current challenges of teaching process of civic in Georgia was discussed. The participants underlined that higher motivation of the students is necessary in order to increase the interest about the subject. 

Civic education expert and the lecturer at European University – Nino Gvaramadze mentioned that sometimes when students start learning civic education at their first month of their studies, most of them are not much aware of the subject – for example competences for democratic culture, but hopefully in the process of learning they understand that there is nothing difficult in it and what is more important, they start understanding the significance of the issue. Once more this proves that it is necessary to increase the accessibility of civic education for all students.  

While discussing the topic, participants mentioned that students in highly democratic countries have an opportunity to put gained education into practice, which frequently is not available in Georgian environment which is the most important challenge in some of the participants opinion. And besides that participants also underlined that it is necessary to increase the level of collaboration among different actors in civic education to ensure high quality teaching and the sustainability of the outcomes.

Caravan in Georgia is organized by Eastern-European Association for Citizenship Education under support of the Federal Agency of Citizenship Education of Germany (bpb) and funded by German Foreign Office. The local partner of Caravan is a Civic Education Teachers’ Forum (CETF, Georgia).

Read more:

The EENCE Citizenship Education Caravan in Georgia has started

The EENCE Citizenship Education Caravan continues its journey across Georgia. Day 2

See the programme of the EENCE Citizenship Education Caravan in Georgia

The EENCE Citizenship Education Caravan in Georgia. Day 3

Caravan of Citizenship Education in Georgia. Day 4. Samtskhe-Javakheti region