The Council of Europe continues promoting educational aspects of integration of national minorities in Georgia. On 19 and 20 April 2017, new bilingual kindergarten textbooks produced within the EU/Council of Europe Joint Programme “Civic Integration of National Minorities in Georgia and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages” were handed out to Marneuli, Ninotsminda, Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsikhe Municipalities based on the preliminary needs assessment.

During the meetings, Mr Merab Topchishvili, Head of the Marneuli Municipality, Mr Gagik Karslyan, Head of the Ninotsminda Municipality, Mr Valeri Stelmashov, Head of Education, Cultural, Sport, Tourism and Youth Affairs Department at Gamgeoba of the Akhalkalaki Municipality and Mr Zaza Melikidze, Head of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality expressed gratitude for receiving the new bilingual textbooks and stressed that these educational resources are very much needed and practical for the kindergartens. Also, interlocutors presented some other needs related to effective civic integration of national minorities and expressed readiness for further cooperation.

The set of five kindergarten bilingual textbooks has been produced in 13 minority languages. The e-versions are available on the project’s website and more than 10500 copies have been printed and distributed already. In the case of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian language kindergartens, these teaching materials are devoted also to support children to develop proficiency in Georgian.