EDUCATION Issue no: 018
www.georgiatoday.ge
facebook.com/ georgiatoday
• NOVEMBER 2018
• PUBLISHED MONTHLY
PRICE: GEL 2
In this issue...
FOCUS
Georgian Teachers to See Long Awaited Salary Raise
ON EDUCATION REFORMS
PAGE 4
Welcome to the Bank
We speak to Minister Batiashvili to find out his plans for Georgia’s education reform
PAGE 5
New Project Helps Pensioners Build Computer Skills PAGE 8
Dancing ‘The Other Way’ PAGE 10
Georgian Food Celebrated in Germany PAGE 13
A Business in Focus: The Moxy Hotel PAGE 15
Photo source: Entrepreneur Georgia
Guram Kashia & Locomotive Speak Out against Bullying
BY SAMANTHA GUTHRIE
A
t the beginning of November, Georgian football player Guram Kashia and players for the Tbilisi Locomotive football team visited the British-Georgian Academy in Tbilisi to talk with students about bullying and to promote the campaign “ძლიერები არ ძალადობენ” (dzlierebi ar dzaladoben - the strong do not bully).
Kashia spoke about his childhood when he was a victim of school-yard bullies. At the time, sports were not cool and Kashia’s love for football was ridiculed. The “cool” kids would stand at the cafeteria doors and force other students to pay them money to enter. Kashia said that he was not popular, had few friends and was afraid to stand up to the bullies. He would tell his parents he was sick so he could stay home from school and avoid them. “When I was at school in the 1990s, there were no conversations about bullying, and parents and children thought bullying and physical fights were normal and even healthy for young boys,” he said.
Kashia said he never told his parents or younger brother about the bullies, worried that they would not take his fears seriously and tell him to fight back. “I regret that and wish I had told my brother so we could have stood up to the bullies together,” he said. The football star’s final piece of advice to the kids was to talk with someone about their feelings, to tell an adult if they are being bullied and to talk to friends. He even offered to talk with the students through his personal Instagram account if they did not feel comfortable talking to other adults about bullying. Kashia is the vice-captain of the Georgian national football team and
plays for the San Jose Earthquakes in California, USA. In August, he was awarded UEFA’s #EqualGame Award for his support of the LGBT community on the football field. Kashia won the award for taking a courageous public stand for equality. While playing for Dutch SBV Vitesse last season, he joined other team captains by wearing a rainbow armband, signifying support for the LGBT community. After winning the award, Kashia said “I believe in equality for everyone, no matter what you believe in, who you love or who you are...I will always defend equality and equal rights for everyone, wherever I play.”