Georgia Primary Education Project Monthly Report January 2016

The project began in 2015 and is implemented by Chemonics International Inc. in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. The project's primary goal is to enhance the quality of primary education in Georgia, with a focus on improving reading and math skills among students. Implementation of the project involves several key components, including the development and dissemination of instructional materials, teacher training, and the establishment of a teacher learning circle (TLC) program. The TLC program brings together teachers from different schools to share best practices and improve their instructional skills. The project also focuses on improving the capacity of school principals to provide instructional leadership and support to their teachers. The project's G-PriEd Portal is a key tool for implementing the project's activities. The portal provides a platform for teachers to access instructional materials, participate in online training sessions, and share best practices with their peers. The portal also allows school principals to track the progress of their teachers and provide feedback and support. In January 2016, the project made significant progress in implementing its activities. The G-PriEd Portal continued to be developed and improved, with the addition of new features and functionality. The portal recorded 8,656 users in January, with the highest number of users in a single day being 1,350. The portal also continued to provide support to schools through its FAQ block and by facilitating efficient use of e-sessions. The project's training delivery component also made significant progress in January. A 2-day training session was delivered to 6 GSL trainers and 1-day training session was delivered to 9 math trainers who will train respective teachers in pilot and expansion ethnic minority schools. The project also sustained the Portal-based electronic training in Georgian pilot schools, with TLC facilitators from 59 schools conducting 182 e-sessions in reading and 184 e-sessions in math. The project's school visits and classroom observations component also made significant progress in January. A total of 51 visits were conducted to expansion schools, with 28 visits focused on reading trainers and 23 visits focused on math trainers. The project also conducted a brief phone survey with 10 randomly selected school principals. The project's TLC activities component also made significant progress in January. A total of 742 TLC facilitators from expansion schools reported on 1,179 TLC activities conducted at their schools during the period of November 2016-January 2016. The activities included model lessons, lesson study, case study, data analysis, and peer observation. The project's business skills program (BSPE) also made significant progress in January. The project organized a school visit and business skills lessons' observation for USAID Mission Director and G-PriEd COR, which was recorded by Maestro TV station and aired in the Tbilisi School #133, Grade 6 BSPE classroom observation. The project also signed two MOUs with private sector companies, bringing the total number of signed MOUs to 34, with 137 volunteers committed to participate in the business skills program. The project's cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) also made significant progress in January. The project received comments from the MES about business skills slogans on business skills banners for bus advertising campaign and received an approval from the MES to use the MES logo on business skills banners. The project's planned activities for February 2016 include testing reading and math software of E-Assess in selected schools, fixing bugs, and launching. The project also plans to continue programming math software of E-Assess, designing different statistics that can be derived from the Portal, and interpreting Google Analytics to better understand Portal-user behavior. The project also plans to continue uploading materials to the Portal, developing tutorials for Portal users, and finalizing a Forum structure to be integrated into G-PriEd Portal.