Education priorities of 2012

2012 Strategy Plan by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia encompasses all fields of education and will prompt many changes in the educational system of the country. Currently MES is implementing reforms in 42 different directions. Reforms of 2012 will cover 5 more directions.  

2012 Summer Programs are one of the recent initiatives amongst future plans that encompass: 1. Student employment program that implies 25,000 student employments during summer holidays; 2. Retraining of the population from 15 towns (Rustavi, Kutaisi, Poti, Zestaponi, Gori, Khashuri, Zugdidi, Batumi, Tkibuli, Oni, Chiatura, Akhalkalaki, Samtredia, Ozurgeti, Telavi) in the English language, computer and professional orientation.

The Ministry will fund unified national examinations for 7000 students studying at unauthorized educational institutions, and acknowledge their scores if they pass the exams successfully. With this, the students studying at unauthorized educational institutions will have opportunity to proceed with their tuition at Higher Educational Institutions acknowledged by the Government of Georgia

From 2012 foreign students will benefit from the simplified application procedures, enabling them to begin their education at educational institutions after 24 hours they have posted their applications. Procedures to prove the authenticity of all the necessary paperwork will be conducted in parallel mode. Before the implementation of the new procedure foreign students willing to continue study in Georgia had to wait for couple month.

Entrants’ secondary enrolment will be abolished from 2012. An entrant will able to choose from the list of twenty suggested faculties, instead of seven, though he will be enrolled only on the basis of primary selection made. Due to the abovementioned procedures, results of the examination will be announced before August 25 instead of October.  Consequently, 2012 will be less stressful and more comfortable for entrants and their parents. Starting from the next year, minimal limit of competency level on medical faculties will be increased by 10% and reach 35%; minimal limit of competency level on foreign language faculties will reach 30%. On all the other directions of the medical faculty, the limit will remain unchanged.

Certain constraints will be established for Higher Educational Institutions that holds them responsible to select the fourth subject from the respective field. Earlier the fourth subject was selected by the higher educational institutions themselves and notwithstanding a strict policy in some universities entrants would take their fourth exam in history or geography, instead of chemistry or biology.

Changes will enter in the legislation pertaining to the mobility. Student mobility will be restricted, which will be reflected in the following: a student studying on history faculty will not be able to move on medical faculty, unless he takes the fourth exam in the respective field on the unified national examination; a student changing faculty on the basis of the mobility will be able to retain his credits.

Higher Educational Institutions will also benefit from the development foundation, which will draw funds for master programs abroad. Technological University will be opened in Batumi. State higher educational institution will receive grant in the amount of 1 million GEL to invite foreign professors and educators to visit Georgia to share their expertise.

One of the biggest challenges in 2012 education system is enhancement of education quality at public schools in Georgia. In this regard national curriculum plays a crucial role. New curriculum will be introduced to VII-XII grades at public schools. New textbooks will be published for grades VII-XII and the price of one copy will not exceed 10GEL.

The new curriculum is already introduced to public schools in grades 1 through 6. The curriculum will remain unchanged for 5 years. Socially vulnerable students from grades I-XII will receive text-books for free.

The main task of the new curriculum is to enhance and promote learning of exact and natural sciences, IT technologies and English language at schools. Teaching IT technologies will be enhanced at schools; teachers will be retrained; 100 more “Future Classroom” will be opened and schools will be equipped with smart boards; specific computer programs will be created and educational computer games will be available in every subject. 60,000 first graders and their teachers will be gifted with portable computers made in Georgia. To enhance teaching of natural sciences, a new subject of natural science will be introduced to seventh graders according to national curriculum, which will make the learning of subjects of natural science more effective and exciting. 1800 schools will be equipped with natural labs and establishment of international summer schools of natural science will proceed as planned.

From 2012 the project “Teach and Learn with Georgia will be extended, which aims to enhance teaching of the English Language. Within the frames of this project, 1500 English language volunteer teachers will visit Georgia. Besides this, 300 English language local volunteers from Kvemo Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti and other high mountainous regions will work as English language teachers at schools.  English language class-cabinet will be opened at public schools of Georgia from 2012. English language summer schools will be opened in Georgia, Great Britain and Malta.

Teacher qualification enhancement, certification and salary augmentation is implied in the priorities of 2012. Teacher quality enhancement is proportional to salary augmentation. For this period teacher average salary is 380GEL. After certification teacher’s salary will be increased by 75GEL. Mentor teachers will receive 180 GEL supplement to their salaries.  Besides this, every certified teacher will receive supplement to their salaries in the amount of 125GEL after their pass exams in English and computer literacy and those whose results are amongst top 25% receive salary in the amount of 1000GEL. Teachers of physics, biology and chemistry will receive 75GEL supplement to their salaries if they pass lab tests.

In high mountainous regions every teacher participating in the program “Learn with Georgia” will receive 500Gel supplement to their salaries. Supplemental salary in the amount of 1000GEL is granted to every teacher participating in the program “Georgian as second language”; Teachers participating in bilingual study program will have 200GEL supplement.

In order to facilitate teachers’ activities, teachers houses will be opened in Kutaisi, Batumi and Zugdidi in 2012. Teachers will be trained in certification exams; mentor-teacher and induction programs will be extended. New methodical teacher supportive manuals will be published; teacher trainings is planned to take place abroad as well (CERN, Notingham);

In response to the labor market, from 2012, the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is planning enhancement and expansion of professional education. From 2012 vocational education will be based on tuition voucher per capita, which means that the Ministry will fund tuition of students of vocational educational institutions by granting them 1000GEL tuition vouchers per person. Tuition fees for socially vulnerable students will be 100% covered by the government. There are changes in fourth and fifth levels of vocational education. Like masters’ candidates entrants of vocational education institutions will have to take general ability tests at unified national examination and choose desired profession in August. Students are not required to specify where they want to proceed with their education after successful completion of the test. The Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is planning to build 4 more vocational education institutions.

The Ministry’s number one priority is to foster social integrity of ethnical minorities. The main problem in this regard is language barrier. To overcome these difficulties, MES has activated the program “Georgian language for future success, which has been successfully functioning and implies recruitment of volunteer Georgian language teachers in the regions inhabited by ethnical minorities. MES is planning to expand this program in 2012; 500 volunteer teachers will be recruited to non-Georgian schools. The Textbook of the Georgian language with supplemental audio-video resources is already created for different grades. Currently three levels of these textbooks are already published. All twelve levels will be published in 2012. The textbooks will be distributed in ethnical minority schools and “Georgia Language houses” as well. Georgian language houses will be opened in Samtske-javakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Kakheti regions inhabited by ethnical minorities. With no age limitations, everybody can study Georgian language; in addition to this student exchange programs will be developed; teachers of non-Georgian schools will be retrained; multilingual teaching will be enhanced. Teachers with bilingual teaching abilities will receive supplemental salary in the amount of 200GEL.

Additionally, representatives of ethnical minorities will benefit with quotas in higher educational institutions and advantages at unified national examinations. Z. Jvania School of Public Administration will be expanded with opportunities for teachers and principals of non-Georgian schools to be retrained and trained in Georgian language.

Implementation of E-strategy takes important part in the challenges of 2012, with the help of which the entire educational system will be moved on to electronic mode; electronic data bases will be created: ePeople – human resources management system, eSchools – school information systems, eStudents – student management information system, eAssets – school infrastructure management system, eGIS – geography informational system, eLibrary –library of electronic books,  eCatalog  -catalog of educational institutions.

In parallel to contextual alterations, there are infrastructural projects on the agenda as well, which aim to improve school infrastructure with funding in the amount of 40 million GEL: 10 new schools will be built, 4 new vocational educational institutions will be opened in Tbilisi, Ozurgeti, Kobuleti; 3 new IT centers will be opened in Telavi, Zugdidi, Akhaltsikhe in line with Sony professional college; Institute of National Manuscript will be renovated; On the basis of voucher funding system the problem of funding constraints was fully eradicated and schools funds are increased to 40 million GEL.

In challenges of 2012 important part is dedicated to the expansion of the service of school resource officers to cover all regions of Georgia with head offices in the center of every region. The center of school resource officers of Georgia will become member of National Association of School Resource Officers of the United States of America. The service of school resource officers will be introduced to additional 140 schools; resource officers will be continually retrained.

According to the results of UN research, Georgia is one of the leading countries in terms of education accessibility. This result achieved by Georgia Educational System was based on comprehensive reforms undertaken by MES, where development of inclusive education is of utmost importance. From 2012 expansion of inclusive education is on the agenda, which will be reflected by the growth in the number of inclusive schools, creation of adaptive psychical infrastructure, retraining of teachers of inclusive education and introduction of inclusive education to vocational institutions; in addition to the abovementioned, organization of international conference on inclusive education is on the agenda.

In parallel to implemented and planned changes in general and higher education systems, the Ministry is implementing several projects for development and promotion of scientific field. 25 million GEL from the state budget is allocated to scientific researches in parallel of which development of scientific infrastructure, rehabilitation of the National Institute of Manuscript, support of Georgian scientists and their business trips to the international research centers is also anticipated, which will promote international partnership in in the field of science. The competition “Leonardo Da Vinci” aims to promote science learning amongst students.

The main goal of the Strategic Plan of 2012 is accessibility to quality education country-wide.