Phoka Nunnery of St. Nino

 Such is an intention of the Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia that special task must be imposed to the Poka nunnery. The Patriarch acknowledges that the nunnery should fulfill the missionary task and mediate between the estrangement existing in the region and the rest of Georgia. Special attention should be paid to education and civil self-cognition.

 The nunnery carried and carries out several programs for educational purposes.

 In the beginning of 2000th the Poka monasteries were some kind of bases wherein the STU students arrived at expedition to assist the monasteries by manual labour  and to perform the educational activities. That time it was the first time when the format and tradition of conducting lectures, meetings, discussions, invitation of guests were defined that are stilled retained today.

 In 2013, a program of seasonal schools that involved conducting a cycle of seasonal lectures and meetings to discuss some topical concepts started. Due to the lack of the school campus the planned meetings were conducted only at weekends. In summer of 2013, as few as nine meetings were conducted. The cycle of the meetings involved the discussion on important issues such as literature, music, philosophy, modern art, journalism and media, cinematographic art, photographic art, history. Among the invited lecturers were Zurab Karumidze, Nana Zardiashvili, Aka morchiladze, Zaza Shatirishvili, Goga Devdariani, Ana Nikoradze, Tamar Kvesitadze, Nino Sanikidze, Zaza Osmanov. 15 students from various institutions participated in the meetings.

 A sabbath school is also in operation at the Poka nunnery which teaches the local Armenian population Georgian and English languages, thus providing significant assistance to the younger generation in learning and passing the school and national exams.