School start

The introduction

In this article I want to tell you about the school system in Georgia and the new changes in the laws, which made the people not very happy, and they kind of protested it, however, they couldn’t do anything, but to abide the law.

Well, usually when children were more than 5 and around 6 years old, they could already go to school and they could go to that particular school, that they wanted, well, I mean, whichever their parents wanted, because at that age children can’t really decide which school they want to attend to, of course. And the school year used to start not in the first of September, but on the second Monday of September, I guess. however, now those things have changed and there have been some other rules about going to school and things like that.

Anyways, there has been too many changes in school systems and I don’t know too much about them, however, I know some things, which I don’t agree with, however, there’s a law and I can’t change it.

So, first of all, let me tell you about this thing, that the school year starts on the 15-th of September and no matter which day it is, it must start on that date without any doubt.

The second thing is, that the children born after that date, who are not yet 6 years old, but are going to be in a couple of days or in a month or so, can not get into the schools, because they are still 5 years olds by that date and , since the law says, that the school age is 6 years old, they can not go to schools and they have to wait a year for their turn to come and go to schools. That’s just ridiculous, if you ask me, because the child basically loses one year and he or she can not do anything during that year, of course. Those children are just in a really bad situation, because they  can not go to school and they are “very old” for kindergartens. That was how my cousin couldn’t go to school the year before, because they told him that they couldn’t’ let him be at school, because he would be 6 years old at the end of October and that was pretty late for that. So that, he was the oldest one in his kindergarten because of that.    

Well, it was just then, that they could apply for schools and the process itself was pretty disturbing and people didn’t really know, what was going to happen, because there were not too many places in some schools, which were considered to be good and everybody wanted their children to be at those schools, so that the competition was pretty high and the other schools didn’t really have too many visitors, of course, no matter how close they were to the people. I remember, there used to be this rule, that you should have gone to that school, which was nearby you , so that you belonged to that school according to the area and so that people would go to that school. However, some people would have some authorities and would go to another school, which they liked, as I know. well, it doesn’t matter now, because everything has been changed and people have to register online for their children to get into the school. And that concerns about kindergartens, too, and people get registered online and there’s this moment, when everybody sits at their computers, waiting for the registration process to start and the system to log in and that’s the most difficult moment, I guess, because if you are not fast enough, somebody else can be faster and take your place and then your child is left without kindergarten.

Getting registered into the school

So, it was just recently , that I found out about online registrations and that it needed to be registered online, otherwise the child wouldn’t get into a school, so that I was kind of surprised about that. I mean, how can someone leave a child out of the school just because they couldn’t register into the system?! However, it was the law and we started preparing for the registration. It was my cousin, who had to be registered and my aunt had already made up her mind about the school, which she was going to apply for her child, however, there were only 40 places or something like that and many people wanted to have their children registered there, so that we needed to be very fast, so that we would register the application faster than the others and we would have a place in that school for our cousin. However, my aunt was working that day and she couldn’t really wait for the registration to start and everything, and all the other people around, including me, knew about the registration and we were sitting at our computers waiting for the registration process to begin. However, it was not that easy, because the day before, we thought, that the registration would start in the midnight and we were waiting for that, too, though then they had this announcement on their web page, that the registration process for the schools would start the next day on 9 a.m. so that, we slept that night and waited for the day to dawn, so that we would register my cousin.

Well, there we were, all those people in different houses and places waiting for the registration process to start. And it was exactly 9 a.m. when I refreshed the web page and it just popped up, that the registration was open, so that I started applying immediately. It was very hard to concentrate, because I was pretty nervous, that I would have something wrong written somewhere, however, my aunt had already prewritten everything in other document and I just had to copy that information into the correct gaps. To tell you the truth, that was a very good idea, because that way, I could just copy them and not bother about anything else, you know. and everything was just great, I was getting to another steps and soon it all was finished and when I clicked the button, it wrote, that the child was registered into that school and they sent the application number and everything and I was just relieved, that everything went very well there. Soon I told that to my aunt and I asked her whether she got any sms from them, however, she told me that she hadn’t received anything yet and then I thought, that maybe I did something wrong, however, soon she got the sms confirming the registration and so that we knew, that we didn’t’ have to worry about anything else anymore, because in September, my cousin would go to their desired school and it would be just great, though he didn’t really understand what was going on and what he had to expect from the next year after graduating from his kindergarten.

So that, now you realize, that the system itself is not very fair, because some children are left without good schools, or without school even, because they couldn’t be fast enough to get their places in those schools, and sometimes, children will just have to walk all those kilometres just to get into the school, where there’s no good education or as good education as they would get in a nearby school or something like that, you know. it’s just ridiculous and I don’t really like that , however, people couldn’t change that and they got used to the fact, that they should register online and there wouldn’t be all the places for children and that they should have been fast and accurate just to make the application right and get their children into the desired or into any other school, I guess.

Well, anyways, I don’t know about the other children, but I’m glad, that I helped my cousin get into the school, that my aunt wanted, so that I hope, that he will get a good education and after some years, he can go to another school, which is a better one, but takes pupils from higher grades and not the starting ones.

There are many schools in Tbilisi and there are many children living there, too, who are supposed to go to school this year, however, the places were pretty much occupied in a couple of minutes after the registration started, so that I don’t know what happened to those children, who couldn’t register in the schools.

Anyways, the school started on 15-th of September, 2017 and I hope, that everything will be well and I will see my cousin off to his new school and I hope, that he will like it there. Though he is really smart and already knows so many things, that it’s really surprising and that’s why I think, that those classes can be boring for him, however, who knows?! We will see it. Until then, we just wait and hope for the best.

To tell you the truth, I have studied in two schools, one school was where I studied for four years, which were the elementary school years and I was there because my grandmother taught there and I could enroll that school, however, it was kind of far from my house, so that the school area of that school was not for me, though I still went there because of that. And then there were not those strict rules about going to schools and everything. after those four years, I moved to another school, which belonged to the territory nearby my house and so that I was supposed to go there in that school from the very beginning. That’s why I got to that new school on my fifth study year and, besides, it was known, that the education quality there was better than in the one, where I went for four  years. So that, I had that new school, which I really liked, though the situation and people were pretty much different from those ones, that I knew in my old school.

Anyways, that was some of the information about the schools in Georgia and the system that they decided to have from now on and, well, we will see what happens and whether that system will work or not, however, everything is changing day by day and no one really knows, what to expect. For example, my another cousin is in the 8-th grade and he just found out , that he must pass some exams in some of the school subjects. That’s just really wrong, because the whole year they didn’t know anything about the examinations and just when the summer came and pupils just want to be free and have some fun, the school tells them, , that they will have the examinations. So , that kind of thing is not that good from the school itself or whatever and there shouldn’t be such cases, if you ask me. However, things like that happen and people just don’t understand how it affects on the children’s brains or psychology or whatever.

So, now you know, what kind of happens when going to school in Georgia and how people have to deal with all those stuff and preparation for the first year of school and things like that. Everyone is pretty excited about that, of course, and everyone want their children to be great and study well, so that they try to do their best to make the environment good for their children to be like that.

Photo gallery