Teacher’s Certification Methods

From the Spring of 2010 Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia starts certification processes of teachers. The teachers will write the tests that are distributed in basic directions: Development and education of people; Educational and professional environment, training and estimation. The Professional Development Center of Teachers guarantees the rise of teaching status, high standards of professional knowledge and activity as well as significant improvement of learning processes and its quality for benefit of teachers and students. During the certifications the teachers have to pass two exams: Pedagogical skills and the exams in their own professions.

Development center was established in January 2007 with support of Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. According to the Center acting teachers should have to pass examinations in order to gain certificate. Those who wish to become teacher are obliged to take at least one experimental year at school and only after positive estimation of mentioned school pass the examination. In case of successful results the teacher will be awarded with certificate.

First examinations for certificate in Georgian language and literature, foreign languages, Mathematics and Pedagogical skills will take place in 2010 for the teachers of Primary/secondary schools. The state will assign the costs of Certification, so the teachers will participate in the exams without any payment. Those Teachers and seekers who won’t be able to pass first examination have an opportunity to re pass it. Repeated examinations require payment. The Ministry of Education and Science will make the decision about the amount of it. Also the teachers with teaching experience but who aren’t active for today can be able to take part in certification processes. Teachers who get certificates, must renew them once in every eight year. The age balance for the candidates isn’t limited.

According to the Center the prearrangement for the tests has begun, and the information about each of the content will be clear several weeks before the exams. While specialists are preparing the original tests the Center offers examples of tests on the Professional Development Center’s website www.tpdc.ge that informs the participants about the exams.

Lela Tsikarishvili, headmaster of Tbilisi public school N1, says that the exams will be important for teachers, it can show their knowledge and rise up qualification. “The teacher who passes this exam successfully, will be apprised by students and colleagues,” she says, adding that not only students are required to study, but also teachers, who must renew their experience all the time.

The schools which have a deficit of employers, teachers who won’t pass the exams successfully, the government will make an exception and some of them will be able to continue working in the same schools. This kind of exception especially may happen in the regions, where the amount of staff is very poor.

Soso Khutsishvili the headmaster of Public school N57 shares Tsikarishvili’s opinion and says that these exams give teachers an opportunity to learn innovations. Nowadays the methodical literature is inaccessible for teachers in Georgia and these exams help them to access this lack of knowladge. According to Khutsishvili there were experimental exams for teachers twice a month, last academic year, where participated all the schools that are located in Vake district and the exam results satisfied the requirements of the tests. The exams in pedagogical skills are new for teachers, but it isn’t so hard to fail. “I have introduced the pedagogical skills to my school teachers and I can say that 80 percent of them will pass successfully.” – says Khutsishvili.

Also according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia there were the trainings in computer programs in September 2009, which considered the development of human resources, that include professional knowledge and activities for teachers qualification. There were 467 participants and almost all of them collected the grades that satisfied the test demands. www.mes.gov.ge

One of the school students of Tbilisi, said that he had the teachers who learned him Georgian language with old method of teaching, and also he had the lesson with the other teacher, who participated in the certification programe and passed it successfully. “This teacher with her lesson was so different from the older one, that the whole class gained her during the lesson and it was not as boring as it was before.” – says the 55 Public School student, Gigi Kalandadze.

The goverment has established the exams for the University lecturers too. Tests and contents for higher education lecturers differ from the teacher’s exam programs. The qualification tests for lecturers have begun in 2008. For example in Javakhishvili State University on the faculty of English language and literature, lecturers have exams in Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT), a handbook for teachers from the University of Cambridge.

According to the department of Western languages, Teaching Knowledge Tests (TKT) offers candidates a step in their professional development as teachers and enables them to move higher-level teaching qualifications. TKT is suitable for teachers of English in primary, secondary or adult teaching contexts. One of the English language lecturers, Nino Sarajishvili, who works in Javakhishvili State University, had already passed the exams successfully and continues working as an English language lecture in the University. She says that according to the rules, the lecturers who pass the exams receive the certificate and continue working on the same positions, and the others who won’t be able to pass them, they will continue working only for temporary period to end up their study programs with the students and then they will leave and stay unemployed.

In the Introduction of TKT is described the content of the tests. The lecturers are required to write three modules that includes the test book:

Module One – language and background to language learning and teaching.

Module Two – lesson planning and use of resources for language teaching.

Module Three – Managing the teaching and learning process.