Ms. Natia Mezvrishvili, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs attended the conference “Safe School” organized by the Ministry of Education and Science in Tbilisi. The Project aims at ensuring the pupils’ safety in and out of the territory of school.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and the Ministry of Education and Science prepared a draft amendment to the Law of Georgia on “General Education”, which will be discussed in the Parliament of Georgia in the nearest future; according to the draft law, the Office of Resource Officers acquires additional functions that will enhance the efficiency of its activities and will be oriented on prevention of juvenile offenses.
According to the legislative amendments, new requirements for a candidate of a resource officer have been defined. Instead of full general education, a resource officer shall be required to have professional or higher education. Consequently, the minimal age for a resource officer shall be 21 years.
The Minister of Education and the Minister of Internal Affairs will jointly approve the training courses for a resource officer. The courses, along with other components of the training, shall include physical training.
In order to neutralize the conflict between schoolchildren and prevent the conflict out of the school, a resource officer shall have the obligation to separate a minor and in case of an offence - immediately to notify his/her parent and police. In case of separation a pupil shall be engaged in different school activities. The rule of appointing the resource officer will be also changed: they shall be appointed to and dismissed from their positions by the Head of the LEPL Office of Resource Officer instead of a director of the school. Along with the legislative amendments the rules for coordination and information exchange between the agencies shall be developed; the mentioned rule ensures better identification of pupils' risk groups.
Installation of external and internal perimeter video surveillance cameras in the school building shall be mandatory. The video surveillance camera shall be administered by a resource officer (if any) in the school.
According to the schedule determined by the Ministry of Education, video cameras will be installed gradually in public schools and the process of installation will be completed by the end of 2019.
