Georgia

New Preschool Adds Spice - and Color - to Learning

Tbilisi gets its first English-language for both Georgian and international children


By Keti Sikharulidze



Founders of the school Evelyn Tavarez and Byatriz Marnolejo






On a pleasant winter day earlier this week, the new English language International Preschool opened in Tbilisi.

A primary goal of the new educational center is to show Georgian children and their parents the way American children learn and focus on the basic tools of reading and writing, mathematical concepts, applied science, art, manual activities and, of course, games.

"This is not a system that the majority of Georgian society is very familiar with and we would like very much for people just to come and see the school. We have already received a number of calls from people who do not understand the concept of preschool and I think the moment you come through the door you get what it is about. You just have to look into a classroom and then it's like 'O.K. I get it,'" said Evelyn Tavarez, one of the founders of the school who has lived in Georgia for the passed 6 years.

According to the school's curriculum the Georgian children will have one hour a day of Georgian to learn writing and reading, and basic math skills will also be taught in Georgian. "They have to know Georgian, of course, because it is their mother tongue," Evelyn explained. The school will also offer extra classes in Spanish and Russian.

The school has made a major effort to make the classrooms look fun and appealing so that they will be places that children feel excited and motivated. "We have some children who have come to visit and they end up completely refusing to leave. We want the children to say 'Mommy, I want to go to school, I want to stay at school'.'" Evelyn said.

"The kids are the most important element of this project. We want to give the children an opportunity to learn the things that they should be learning, but in a classroom where they have the most important role. We encourage the children to feel like this it is their place, and that everything here is open and available to them," she said.

The initial motivation for initiating this project were Evelyn's own children. A teacher by profession, she said that though there are some good kindergartens in Tbilisi, she could not find an adequate place in Tbilisi to put them where she felt they would learn in the way that she feels is best.

"We welcome all suggestions, we want parents to come here and to say 'you know we think that you should change this or that.' We want everybody to understand that they are involved. This is not a one or two-person project, this has to be a community project and we want everybody to get involved," Evelyn said.

Raised in the Dominican Republic, Evelyn said she also plans to spread Latino culture in Georgia through a Latino-themed summer camp. The camp will feature activities such as learning Spanish songs and dance, eating Spanish food and learning abut Latino culture. All those activities that are usually in English, the children will do in Spanish through games.

"When we were thinking about summer activities, we thought 'Let's do a Latino Summer Camp,' and I think it will work," she said.

The International Preschool is located at16 Megrelidze Street in Saburtalo.