ETAG Project Descriptions

Since 1995 ETAG has been responsible for implementing a large number of education projects, particularly in ELT, in close collaboration with our partners.

We have been directly involved in:

• Setting up teachers’ centres
• Establishing English sections in public libraries
• Organising national conferences
• Teacher training
• Civic Education for Georgian schools
• Research into Georgian ELT

Our partners and funders have been The British Council, USA Embassy Georgia, Open Society – Georgia Foundation, Know-How Fund, Eurasia Foundation, UNDP.

In partnership with US Embassy Public Affairs Section, Peace Corps, British Council, Open Society Institute, Eurasia Foundation, Hornby fund, ministry of Education and Science and its Resource centers, various educational institutions, ETAG has implemented over 20 big and small education projects, which have contributed immensely to Georgian Education Reform as well as to the advancement of the field in general.

Some of the big scale and most important projects are:

• Setting up and equipping ETAG office. Outcome was 9 branches
• Establishing English Language libraries in 5 towns. The outcome was the first English libraries in Georgia which have helped hundreds of English teachers to update their teaching and communication skills.
• Civic Education Curriculum Development for Georgian schools initiated by IOWA University and funded by US Department. The outcome was the first civic education textbook to be used in schools in Georgia and 200 trained teachers.
• Baseline Study on English language teaching and learning in Georgia –the first subject-based baseline study conducted in the country.
• Training courses development such as, Business English, Academic writing, etc. 10 training course in all. In most cases contributors were US Embassy Senior English Language Fellows .
• Curriculum design and training of TLG teachers in accordance with the agreement signed with the Ministry of Education and Science in Georgia.
• Training of mentor teachers in Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi under the education reform scheme and in partnership with the Teachers Professional Development Center of the MoE.
• Development of the electronic database and network of member teachers, which made communication faster and more effective, production of a quarterly electronic newsletter which reaches hundreds of members in various parts of Georgia .

Since 1995 3783 teachers got ETAG trainings among them were teachers from such faraway places as Mestia-North part of Georgia, Keda and Gali in Abkhazia. All the courses were conducted by 48 qualified teachers countrywide

ETAG has designed special programmes and has prepared 465 teachers for the teachers’ certification exam.

Currently ETAG has 3 training courses and 48 trainers accredited by the Ministry of education and science.

National and International Conferences including big-scale South Caucasus conferences in 2003, 2005 and 2009 with TESOL and IATEFL speakers. The main financial contributor was the US Embassy Public Affairs Section. The outcome was a strong network of English teachers in the South Caucasus.

At different times 12 of our members participated in TESOL (US), and 8 in IATEFL(UK) conferences. Over 30 ETAG members have been have won international exchange programmes awards, such as PIE, TEA, etc.