After the launch of the Teacher Pre-Service, Professional Development and Career Advancement Scheme, for the first time, a mentor status was granted to nine teachers. In order to get the mentor status, the teachers have collected 25 credits by implementing various professional activities within the framework of the Scheme.

Today, the Director of the National Center for Teacher Professional Development visited the Public School N128 and met with the two teachers who have been promoted to the mentor’s position within the scheme. Giorgi Machabeli awarded Natia Darchia and Gulnazi Khorbaladze with the certificates certifying the mentorship and congratulated on their promotion.

According to the TPDC Director, he intends to meet all nine teachers and hand the certificates personally.

A leading teacher for obtaining the status of a mentor shall:

• conduct at least 4 model lessons (each 1 credit point);
• carry out a research on the needs of general education institutions and based on the research results hold workshops to share experiences with colleagues (3 credit points);
• create a learning resource or peer-reviewed professional literature (2 credit points); and
• carry out additional activities / work (16 credit points). A leading teacher in order to obtain the status of the mentor shall collect the credit points based on the needs.

The Teacher Evaluation Group assesses the performance of the leading teacher and based on the evaluation of the documents in the teacher’s professional folder makes a decision whether to grant the leading teacher the status of the mentor or not, and whether to submit the proposal to the National Center for Teacher Professional Development.

The mentor’s duties and responsibilities are focused on the improvement of the educational process and the development of the Department and the school. The mentor’s status is a lifelong achievement.

In 2016-2017 academic years, 1359 teachers involved in the Scheme have been promoted to the senior teacher’s status, two- the leading teacher, and nine –the mentor.