GEMS plans Georgia school opening for 2029

GEMS School Management (GSM), the advisory body of GEMS Education, has announced it will open a school in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, by 2029.

GSM said the school will serve pupils aged 3 to 18, but it has not yet confirmed the curriculum it will teach, with the group simply saying it will be an “international curriculum” - likely either the British curriculum or the International Baccalaureate.

The move underlines GEMS’ desire to increase its international presence in new regions, having announced a plan to open a school in Zanzibar, on the east coast of Africa, earlier this month.

Speaking to Tes at the time, GSM chief executive Rob Tarn said the group had signed deals for 10 further GEMS-branded schools to open in nine different countries - of which the Georgia school is the first to be unveiled.

‘A real appetite for the best in education’

For this project, GSM has partnered with Omnia Georgia, a real estate developer in the country, and the school will be based within a residential development being created in the Isani district of the city.

Alexsi Basiashvili, CEO of Omnia Georgia, said the move came at the right time for the country: “Georgia is at an exciting inflection point - a growing economy, an increasingly international population and real appetite for the best in education.”

To that point, GSM cited data from investment firm Galt and Taggart that reported Georgia’s private school enrolment is expected to reach approximately 73,100 pupils by the 2028-29 academic year, up from 66,500 in 2024.

The move into Georgia underlines the push by international school groups to expand their footprint into new markets, such as Dukes Education acquiring a school in Canada and planning to enter the Middle East, too.

Meanwhile, existing schools are facing increasing competition from new entrants, as witnessed by two schools in Kazakhstan moving from Haileybury to Wellington in response, it is claimed, to the arrival of Charterhouse in the country.