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The News in Brief

Tuesday, May 9
Red Cross to Identify Remains from Georgia’s Wars

On May 3, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) started the next round of excavations to search for and identify the human remains of persons, who went missing during and after the armed conflicts of 1990s and the August 2008 in Georgia, ICRC reported to Civil.ge on May 6.

The first gravesites to be excavated by the ICRC forensic experts are located in Gori (two locations) and Kaspi Municipalities (one location) in eastern Georgia.

More than 30 gravesites are to be excavated by the ICRC between May and August in 2017. The gravesites are located in Shida Kartli, Imereti and Abkhazia regions of Georgia, as well as the area around the capital city of Tbilisi. Remains of about 150 missing persons are to be recovered.

Information about these sites was collected in the framework of two ICRC-established coordination mechanisms, one uniting participants from Tbilisi and Sokhumi, and another consisting of participants from Tbilisi, Tskhinvali and the Russian Federation.

The coordination mechanisms were established in 2010 to provide answers for the families on the fate of their missing kins.

Some 249 sets of human remains were recovered in 2010-2016. Of these, 107 were identified, handed over to their families and buried. The identification process of the remaining 142 sets of human remains is still ongoing.
(civil.ge)



Central Park to be constructed at Tbilisi Zoo territory

“Tbilisi zoo will be located near Tbilisi sea and Tbilisi’s Central Park will be constructed at the former zoo territory,” Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania has said.

According to Narmania, the zoo will be deployed at the new location gradually, as the process will cost up to 30-40 million GEL.

“Up to 20 houses for animals will be made this year and the animals will be transported this year,” Narmania claimed.
(ipn)



Georgian, Estonian Gov’ts cooperate to improve Georgia’s education system

A new national curriculum for primary grades based on the Estonian experience will upgrade pre-school and general education in Georgia.

The three year partnership between Georgia and Estonia aims at transforming education in Georgia by introducing innovations and digital technologies in education process.

The Estonian Ministry of Education and Foundation INNOVE in partnership with UNICEF Georgia will support the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science in applying approved national curricula in the primary grades in selected schools and in introducing full-fledged (BA and MA level) programs in state universities of Georgia for pre-service training of preschool and general education teachers to enter into profession.

Georgian Deputy Education Minister Lia Gigauri said this new project will improve the quality of education in Georgia and provide curricula that encourage the children to better perform at their classes.

This cooperation will consist of technical support, capacity development and exchange of experts and experience sharing.

UNICEF Georgia said the memorandum signed today is very important for Georgian educational system. According to the memorandum, Bachelor and Master level programs will be developed for pre-service training of teachers as well as in-service trainings for the working teachers.

To further benefit from the experience of the Estonian education system, which proved to be exemplary for the European Union (EU) and other countries, Foundation INNOVE will bring curriculum experts and academicians from Estonian universities to provide support to the Georgian national universities.

The new partnership is believed to contribute to Georgia’s on-going process of alignment with the relevant European Union standards and best practices as per the EU - Georgia Association Agreement. The program is supported by Development Cooperation Fund of Estonia.
(agenda.ge)