On October 26-29, 2017, MirelaRedzic and Jon Rasmussen,the expert-teachers from upper secondary schools of Denmark conducted the 4-days trainings at the ESFTUG Teachers’ Training Centerin Tskneti. The topic of the trainings was -“School Democracy Culture.”

The solidarity project – “Partnership on promoting education policy capacity, advocacy and school development in Georgia”is implemented by the National Trade Union of the upper secondary school teachers of Denmark (GL) in partnership with the Educators and Scientists Free Trade Union of Georgia (ESFTUG). The 18-month project is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Foundation of the Civil Society in Development (CISU).

41 teachers from the 21 public schools of Tbilisi, also from the 13 regions of Georgia and 2 regions of Adjara Autonomous Republic,participated in the trainings. It should be noted that for the pilotingpurposes, the trainingswere attended bythe 11-th grade student, a member of the students’ self-government body of the Tbilisi public school №37, George Potskhverashvili.

“Democracy in Denmark”; “Democracy on School Level and Project activities” “Democracyon class level in the schools of Denmark”; „Shortly about the Vejen and Frederichafen Gymnasiums”; “Relationship between students and teachers”, “Academic process in free environment, including outside the school“; “Game like a pedagogical method, used at the lessons”; ,,Exam Forms”; “Activating Forms in Classroom”; “How to work with corrected papers together with the students”; “Students are correcting with the using of the internet technologies"; “Evaluation of the students and feedbacks” - these are the main topics discussed by the Dutch trainers together with the Georgian teachers.

The president of the Educators and Scientists Free Trade Union, Maia Kobakhidze and the head of the Monitoring and Coordination Division of the General Education Management and Development Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, EkaterineKhutsishvili greeted the teachers at the first day of the trainings. They wished effective working days to the Danish colleagues and trainingparticipants.

The ESFTUG president, Maia Kobakhidze, introduced the participants the Danish educational system and the results of the visit at the Danish schools. She talked about the current project and about the importance of the seminars planned under this project: “The Danish educational system is one of the best in the world. During our visit, we saw the Danishupper secondary schools, that impressed us.” On behalf of the ESFTUG members, Maia Kobakhidze thanked the National Trade Union of the upper secondarySchools of Denmark (GL) for the implementing of this project, which will help our member teachers in development of their professional skills and raising their civic awareness.

Maia Kobakhidze introduced the participantsthe topics of the four, 4-days seminars, which are planned under this project: “School democracy Culture”; “Formative evaluation system and feedbacks”; “Using of the internet-communication and modern technologies in the educational process”; “Student oriented learning-teaching environment with the modern pedagogical methods”. The aim of the project is that the teachers, participating in the seminar, share all received information, news, experiences, skills to their colleges and introduce in the educational process.

The ESFTUG president, also, thanked the Danish expert-teachers and the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia for their support in the project implementation.

The head of the monitoring and coordination division of the general education management and development department of the ministry of education and science of Georgia, EkaterineKhutsishvili, on her side, thanked the Educators and Scientists Free Trade Union of Georgia, for implementation of the activities which are customized on the teachers' needs andin order to raise their professional competence: “To create the student oriented educational environment is our common goal and for the fulfilling of this goal the most important is the development of the democratic management skills, and these are required not only from the school administration, but first of all it is desired and required that the teachers introduce them in the educational process. In order to raise students’ motivation in the learning process the very important things are the personal relationships and cooperative attitudes between the students and the teachers.The civic literacy, digital literacy, as you know, are recognized as the poignant competence of the National Curriculum and is binding in all subjects and all subject areas”- stated,EkaterineKhutsishvili. She wished the participants of the seminar productive working days and to implement the knowledge and experiences got from the 4-days trainings in the educational process, in order not to losea single useful ideasshared by the Dutch colleagues.

At the third day of the workshop the trainers gave some time to the ESFTUG president.

Maia Kobakhidze explained the seminar participants in details the school structures – the functions and obligations of the tutorial board, disciplinary committee and students' self-government recognized by the current legislation.

She noted that the strengthening of the public schools structure’s independence qualityis the main direction of the ESFTUG activities.

“According to the Georgian current legislation and normative acts, we have the decentralized system of the schools’ democratic management. However, the real picture is hard: the public schools’ structures – the tutorial boards, the pedagogical councils and the teachers’ disciplinary committees are the kinds of suplimenting bodies of the school administration and are the defenders of their interests. This process is caused by the low civic awareness of the teachers and students. They do not know about their rights and they have the low quality of personal freedom and activeness. Our main objective is to raise the knowledge and civil awareness of the students and teachers through this project in order to make their effective involvement in the school democratic management process. In addition, the tutorial board and disciplinary committee within the decision-making process should guide by the law provided competencies”-Maia Kobakhidze stated. She brought a few examples about the decisions which were taken illegally by the disciplinary committee, the tutorial board and the administration and paid attention to the basic principles of democracy - the rule of law.

In the busy four days working process,Georgian teachers could not hide their fascinations and emotionsreceived from the sharing of the Dutch colleagues' experience. The Georgian teachers together with the Dutch colleagues were forming the simulated games and were discussing needs based practical examples for the effective development of the students' knowledges and skills.

At the end, according to the seminar program, the Georgian teachers in groups developed the future plan how to implement the Danish practice inthe educational process and how to share the novelties to their colleagues, which will help the introduction of thelearning-teaching modern approaches and creating the free environment in Georgian schools. Workshop participants agreed that they will send the video/audio materials of the conducted lessons to the Danish experts in which they will use the activities and methods learnt at the trainings.

The Danish guests thanked the ESFTUG President, Vice-Presidents and all the participants for the pleasant days, for the impressions and positive emotions: "The four days which we spent with you for us was an experience that we will share with our colleagues and pupils in Denmark. We not only provided the knowledge and skills but also received them from you. This was the sharing and exchanging of the ideas, skills, experiences. We wish you good luck and we will be pleased to host you in our schools in Denmark”-said the trainers.

In conclusion of the trainings all participants were awarded with the certificates. The Danish trainers gifted the active participants with the commemorative gifts.

For the sustainability of the supporting project the Danish teachers together with the leaders of the trade union promoted the further plan of the cooperation among the teachers and pupils, schools and trade union.