CEC and the Training Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia implemented informational – training program “Elections and Young Voters” in public schools through the period of March 15 - April 12, 2021. The program aims to raise the electoral awareness and promote the growth of civic responsibility among youth.

The project covered 244 public schools located in 64 municipalities. Regarding the pandemic situation in accordance with the current state education policy, the informational – training program “Elections and Young Voters” was implemented in two ways:

• In 204 public schools, where the teaching process took place in classrooms, the course was conducted on the spot, in the form of face-to-face trainings;
• In 40 public schools, where the teaching process took place online, students passed the training in distant format.

In accordance with the concept developed by the Training Centre, public school students get acquainted with the important key topics, such as:

• historical excursus and modernity of elections;
• principles and international standards of conducting democratic elections;
• gender equality in electoral process;
• role of Election Administration of Georgia in organizing and managing elections (including, modern electoral services offered to voters);
• importance of voter’s role in democratic elections;
• legal rights of stakeholders involved in electoral process and main guiding principles of their activities to ensure conducting democratic elections;
• regulations related to conducting elections in safe environment under pandemic;
• voting and counting of votes using electronic technologies (sharing international practices and Georgia’s experience).

In the practical format ongoing in public schools, mock elections were performed, Students chose the slogans popularized by the CEC in different periods. The winner was the slogan "Your choice is the law". Debates with the involvement of young people were also organized within the program, which aims to promote the culture of debate.

4,130 students of XI-XII grade of public schools passed the information-educational program "Elections and Young Voters". Students were awarded with the relevant Certificates.

The project is being implemented from 2015, to date, up to 13,000 students from 738 public schools have passed the information-training course.

The CEC and the Training Center would like to cordially thank the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, the Educational Resource Centers, the public school management and the students for the successful implementation of the project.