Kindergartens in Georgia

According to the official statistics provided by the National Statistics Office of Georgia for 2018-2019, there are 1574 public preschool education and care (PEC) institutions in the country. Among them, 180 are located in Tbilisi, the capital, while the rest are in the other 10 regions. The number of children involved in public PEC in Georgia is 161931, 60847 only in Tbilisi. There are 13261 PEC teachers in the whole state and 4808 of them are working in the capital. Along with public kindergartens managed by the municipalities, there are also private kindergartens.

In Georgia, there are three varieties of PEC institutions: a kindergarten for children from the age of 2 to 6 that includes an initial nursery school for 2 to 3 years-old kids, a kindergarten only for the kids from the age of 3 to 6 without the nursery school, and a school and kindergarten.

In the case of public kindergartens, registering children online is the most important thing. Moreover, it is better to choose a structure close to home, if there are enough vacancies. In fact, this process is challenging for parents since the number of kindergartens is still low compared to the number of children. This issue can be explained by the neoliberal policy implemented by the previous government: when President Mikheil Saakashvili tried to privatize public kindergartens, many of them disappeared. However, the current government attempts to increase this quantity.

Besides children from disadvantaged families, who have a priority during the registration process, big attention is given to the kids with disabilities and their full inclusion in kindergartens.

Kindergartens usually open in September and close in June, while summer kindergartens begin in July. Starting at 9 am and finishing at 6 pm, kindergartens take care of children for 9 hours; however, many parents would like kindergartens to opens at 8 am.

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In a public nursery school, no more than 25 children can stay together in the same class, while the number increases to 35 for older children. In kindergartens teachers, teacher assistants, special pedagogues, speech therapists, and psychologists work together to provide a safe environment to kinds. Moreover, children can eat 3 meals per day plus fruits.

Among all the issues, kindergartens pay attention to children’s development, thematic teaching, first medical aid, positive management of behavior, violence prevention among children, and the inclusion of children with disabilities. All the activities, such as painting, music lessons, and dancing contribute to the physical and emotional development of children.