On April 28, 2011 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 51 items.
Before the meeting started, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Nika Gilauri, talked about a new initiative.
"I would like to mention a couple of issues which the public will be particularly interested in. One of them refers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the other to the initiative of the Ministry of Education and driving licenses. Our initiative is to reduce the age from which the young people can get driving license. We would like to introduce training in this direction at schools, so that high school students could study driving and get driving license," declared Nika Gilauri before the meeting started and asked the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivane Merabishvili, and the Minister of Education, Dimitri Shashkin, to provide more detailed information.
We present speeches of Ivane Merabishvili and Dimitri Shashkin.
Ivane Merabishvili: "The new initiative of the Ministry of Education includes to issue driving licenses of A and B categories to the young people from the age of 17. Such practice operates only in several countries of the world, e.g. in Germany and in some states of America. There is not such practice in our region; we would like to be a leader in this direction, so we have decided to introduce such practice.
There will be certain rules and restrictions. Consent of parents will be essential. A driving license holder shall not carry passengers; he/she shall be not a professional engaged in this field, but only an amateur car owner. Apart from this, when a license holder turns 18, he/she is obliged to change the driving license; this will happen automatically, as driving licenses taken at the age of 18 are internationally acknowledged, according to the international practice. Besides, in case of accumulation of certain violations, they will be deprived of driving licenses and their restoration will be delayed for different periods of time for specific violations.
We take such initiative with the Ministry of Education. For the young people who will cover the course at school and present a so-called passing certificate from the Ministry of Education to our Agency to confirm that they have covered the course, this will be the first free attempt funded by the Service Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. First examination for getting driving license shall be free of charge, as an award from the government to these young people. I hope that this will encourage students to learn traffic rules and the roads and cities in Georgia will become like the cities where all drivers know how to drive the car quite well. We would like to give young people a chance to start living normal life at a comparably early age and contribute to forming our country as a normal state. We hope that this experiment will work out successfully."
Dimitri Shashkin: "We have created a joint commission. This group is formed by employees-experts of the Ministry of Education and experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Police Academy and the Agency. In summer, special manuals shall be prepared to be distributed to schools. The special literature is to be prepared to assist high school students to learn theoretical part of driving better. From September 15 of 2011, this subject will be taught at all public schools. Teachers shall be retrained by the Police Academy. As Mr. Vano Merabishvili has pointed out, we will issue passing certificates that they will produce to the Agency to get driving license free of charge. This will be a significant benefit for these young people."
The Press Service of the Prime Minister
Prime Minister's Press Service