At the concluding conference of the Erasmus + Jean Monnet project – “Advancing European Values and Standards in Georgian Schools” (EU-GS) – important messages on the European identity of Georgia were voiced by members of the government.
“Thank you very much for the project, because integration into Europe is not an empty word, it consists of many components, and the main thing when we talk about rapprochement with Europe is to bring our education system closer to the European one. I am proud to meet our young people and I have a feeling that they are no different from European youth and for that I thank everyone who is involved in transforming the education system. We are united by values, history, identity, culture. The barriers that exist today in terms of EU integration will be removed and broken, and you have a special contribution to make. I would like to wish you success in the implementation of such projects and I stand by you. ” – stated Maka Bochorishvili, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration.
“It is important to increase the knowledge about the values on which Europe and the European University stand, and this project serves this purpose,” – said Giorgi Amilakhvari, Chairman of the Education and Science Committee, and talked about the importance of raising the awareness of young people. “Congratulations! I know what it means to successfully implement such a complex project. You have the right idea and theme, based on the goals and objectives of the country. During the 18 months of the project you worked with different schools and I am sure many innovations have been shared and values gained by our children. That is what they need to know about Europe; The Europe we aspire to. Congratulations once again on this important project,”- Amilakhvari declared.
“Europeanization begins not with an artificial comparison of one standard to another, but first of all with values,” – Tamar Makharashvili, the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, added. “The most important thing is that we see ‘European values’ in the title of the conference. We have to follow the road to Europe by following these very principles. When we talk about higher education and the European path, the success we have achieved is important. But it’s time to believe that we have the extraordinary experts, teachers from whom Europe can hear what is best practice, and that’s what we’re longing for, and this is the long journey we need to set out on, together. This project had the goals that our country really needs and it is one of the top priorities, thank you very much for that.”- Makharashvili said.
