Georgia, Tbilisi, Aug.16 / Trend, N.Kirtskhalia /
All Georgian schoolchildren must learn to speak English as a second language over the next four years, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in Batumi at a meeting with a group of English-speaking volunteer teachers.
The teachers arrived recently from the United States, Canada and Poland. They will live with Georgian families and teach English in Guria, Samegrelo and Adjara. This is the second group of teachers to arrive to Georgia in the framework of the "Teach and Learn for Georgia" project.
Saakashvili said English must become the second language of local schoolchildren, followed by Chinese, Arabic, Turkish and Russian.
"But the main requirement is for all Georgian children to speak English," he said.
Saakashvili called the process an "educational revolution," and his biggest contribution to the development of the country.
A third group of teachers is expected to arrive Aug. 30.
Roughly 1,000 teachers will arrive to Georgia by late 2010.
Saakashvili added that 10,000 teachers will arrive to Georgia over the next four years, who will then be "Georgia's goodwill ambassadors" after leaving the country.