Newspaper “24 Hours”

Higher Educational Institutions Will not be Able to Raise the Tuition Free!

Gvantsa Kilasonia

More than 36,000 entrants are waiting for the results of Unified Entry Exams. The number of admitted entrants at the desirable faculties as well as financing issues will be known in August. Innovations are planned for the students in the new academic year. New law that will disallow higher educational institutions to raise the tuition fee independently will come into force in a few days.

Minister of Education and Science, Dimitri Shashkini spoke about exam conditions and the innovations for the students.

Dimitri Shashkini: The most peaceful that have been ever held in Georgia were Unified Entry Exams were 2010. The fact was approved the schoolchildren pass exams on their own that s very important for the development of our country. As there are no rich resources in Georgia, intellect and education are priority issues. 97% of the registered entrants took part in the exams. The same result in European countries where the similar examination system exists means the high index. Participation of the entrants from Gali is also notable. As it turned out they were offered to use the best limits in Russian best Higher Educational Institutions but they preferred to pass Unified Entry Exams. They were deprived with passports at the border. But as the exception they were allowed at the exam. One of the challenges was also 4 exams instead of 3 and three of eh of the same priority.

In recent years the most popular were the humanitarian faculties.  Which faculties were the most desirable this year?

Unfortunately, the competition was still for international relations and business faculties. I think this is unfortunate. Less competition was fort the faculties of mathematics, physics and chemistry. This means we have to do a lot to make the natural sciences as popular as the business and law faculties. In the conditions of the construction development , infrastructure of the country develops quickly as well. Therefore I think faculties of engineering are very significant. There is a lack of qualified engineers. We have to do everything in order to make these faculties popular.

Maybe the demand for humanitarian faculties is provoked with the lack of attention to other subjects at schools? Natural science lessons will be included in the graduate exams in the next year. Is this innovation introduced in order to increase the popularity of these faculties?

We have many achievements in the educational system, but unfortunately concrete mistakes were made as well.  We did not pay appropriate attention to the following subjects: physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics . . . but nobody can work without mistakes. We will do everything to improve the situation. Frankly speaking if the physics was not taught in the 12^th form the child did not have stimulus to continue studying at this faculty. But we will correct this. More hours will be foreseen for natural science lessons in the new National Curriculum.

You noted exams were held in the calm environment. But one observer was dismissed from the exams.. .

This was very unimportant incident that always happens at the exams. One of the observerS took the mobile phone at the exam that was not allowed. He/she could not use the phone but the fact that the regulation was violated was enough to dismiss him/her.

Entrants received the false messages during the exams that they did not pass general ability tests and taking part in the next exam was senseless. . .

This fact showed once more the erectness of the system and the public confidence in the exams. No entrant believed in the messages. The call center worked in this situation very well. All entrants checked the messages and found that the messages were false. The Ministry of Internal Affairs investigates this fact.

In parallel, teachers and candidates of MA degree were passing exams. Was the environment calm as well?

Opinions of so called experts that only 3% would take part in the exams were false. As it is known teachers’ certification was voluntary. In this case the percentage of crossing point would be very low in each country. 75% of teachers crossed this barrier. This showed once more that teachers’ certification is held to advance their qualification. Teachers’ exams were held by the National Examination Center without violations as well. The only exception was the fact that one teacher came with child and she received the privilege in hours. Our representative looked after the child during the exam. 6,587 candidates registered for MA exams. The Government of Georgia decided to allocate funds according to Graduate Record Exams. State defined the priority fields. 11 directions were defined (business and economics, humanitarian, social, law, engineering, education and pedagogic, natural sciences, agrarian, mathematics, IT, arts and health care). 10% of the funds will be distributed according of high ranking list that will be created based on the results graduate record exams, another 40% will be equally distributed to the directions and the left 50% will be distributed to the priority directions.

Amendment in the law on higher education will come into force soon. What innovations are planned?

All alterations are designed to improve the quality of education and protect the students’ rights. Many innovations are envisaged in the law. I will highlight the most important ones. For the first time, article that disallows the higher educational institutions to raise the tuition fee on their own is included in the law. Maybe you remember, that agreements were signed envisaging the concrete amount of tuition fee but the administration was increasing the fee on the second third the fourth courses. That was difficult for the students’ families. I think this is unfair. Therefore decision is made and the higher educational institutions will not be able to raise the fee independently during the teaching process. The student will pay the tuition fee that will be written in an agreement signed at the first course. The only exception may be for example inflation. And in this case as well agreement of the government will be necessary. Government is responsible to protect the right of each person. One more innovation is the authorization of the licensed universities that will enable to protect the students’ rights. Private higher educational institutions will be given an opportunity to become more popular. Students will be enrolled in all authorized higher educational institutions according to unified entry exams and their diplomas will be recognized by the state. Education Quality Development Center will be established as well that will abolish the older bureaucratic mechanism that was checking requirement satisfaction by the amount of desks. After founding the Center, higher educational institutions will be evaluated by this Center  according to the level of education, authorization, accreditation, apostil and etc. Innovation is establishing Community Colleges or Public Institutions. Together with different disciplines, other significant programs will be introduced in these institutions. During the two years, students will master different vocational specialties for example IT, producing and etc as well as study general subjects.