Education Minister: national values to be integrated across new school textbooks by 2028

Georgia’s Education Minister Givi Mikanadze has announced a comprehensive reform of school textbooks on Wednesday, saying the Government’s primary objective is to integrate national values more deeply into the education system.

Speaking about the initiative, Mikanadze said all humanities and STEM subjects would receive new textbooks by September 15, 2028, with the first editions for Grades 1, 7 and 10 to be introduced at the beginning of the upcoming academic year.

He said the reform would establish a single textbook for each subject and grade level to be used in both public and private schools, replacing the current system in which different schools often use different materials.

"The main guiding principle is the maximum integration of national values into the educational process. The textbook reform is one of the key components of the broader general education reform," Mikanadze said.

The Minister added the concept of the new textbooks will differ significantly from previous editions. Covers will feature imagery reflecting Georgian national heritage. As an example, he said the chemistry textbook would depict the traditional Georgian wine-making process, highlighting its connection to chemical processes, while the back cover would explain the scientific principles involved.

The physics textbook, he added, will feature the work of Georgian scientist Elguja Medzmariashvili and his contribution to the launch of Georgia’s first satellite. Similar concepts will be applied across other subjects.

Mikanadze also said the new textbooks would include more than 500 new illustrations of Georgian architectural monuments to strengthen students’ awareness of the country's cultural heritage.

He noted that textbook reform had been one of the main concerns raised by parents, particularly because students transferring between schools often encountered entirely different textbooks and teaching methodologies for the same subject and grade.

"Parents repeatedly told us they were dissatisfied because children moving from one school to another often had to adapt to completely different textbooks. This creates confusion and negatively affects learning outcomes. That is why we decided to introduce unified textbooks, and I believe the results will become visible very soon," the Minister said.