On March 28, 2012 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 48 items.
Before the meeting started, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Nika Gilauri, talked about the education reform.
We present the Prime Minister's speech:
"Good day. Before discussing issues on the agenda, I would like to talk about the education reform and results, which our reform has already shown in a few words. I hope that the result will be greater in the future. This time, I mean a school reform as well as university examinations.
First of all, I would like to emphasize the fact that 41 thousand teachers have been registered to pass certification exams this year. This number is twice as much as that of the last year. I think that this is a great success. This is very important, especially for schoolchildren that absolutely all links in the chain is directed to the same purpose.
This purpose shall be growth of education level of children. Respectively, we have created different motivations for Principals as well as for teachers of schools. One of the main motivations is certification and passing certification exams. All certified teachers are given bonus amounting to GEL 75. Apart from this, additional sum amounting to GEL 125 is given to those who pass English language and computer exams, while for the best 25% the salary amounting to GEL 1,000 has been defined. Respectively, this is an additional motivation for a teacher to pass certification exams. I think that the 41 thousand teachers registered this year is a very good step forward.
As for university exams, we have very good results here as well. Last year, in this room, we made a decision to focus on technical engineering disciplines. These are the disciplines, which are actually needed by Georgian business, Georgian economy. These are the fields where graduates will find jobs more easily in the future.
Accordingly, we have made the accent and got respective result. In results I mean that this year, most of school leavers have chosen to take entrance examinations in engineering disciplines. The competition is greater than we have had ever before. In different universities, there are 10-15 applicants for one place at faculties of mathematics and physics. The biggest competition we have on military engineering, where there are 70 applicants for one place and on electric engineering, where there are 36 applicants for one place. Competition is quite considerable.
The policy we had established has already shown results.
The greatest demand from private sector is for these disciplines, as the most jobs are being created to this direction in Georgia today."
Prime Minister's Press Service