The Ministry will not fund unfruitful international researches

Newspaper Versia, 30^th of December

Interview with the Minister

Mr. Minister, during a meeting with the media at the Prime Time media club, you mentioned that you did not recognize the results of those international researches that undertake the assessment of the students’ academic performance. What is the reason for this?

One of the international non-governmental organizations conducted an international research in the education system in many countries of the word, including Georgia. The results of the research undertaken were not recognized by Georgia and many other participant countries.

Why do you have such an attitude towards this research?

International non- governmental organizations spend much on conducting the research, some of these studies assess the events that took place two or three years ago, I think this is meaningless in the current context.

Could you please elaborate a little bit on this?

Participation in such research is voluntary. Many countries do not get involved in these studies; they prefer to carry out national assessment instead. The study that examines the educational system as of 2008 is absolutely unfruitful for evaluating the current situation in the field. As the Minister, I have a very simple question: Why shall we study the past developments now in 2011, what are the results of such researches?

The Ministry is implementing the projects/programs in many directions, each of them has its own purposes; for example, we construct new schools to provide a better environment for the schoolchildren, increase the salary of the teachers to boost up their motivation, modify the national curriculum to enhance the quality of learning. I don’t understand why shall we pay thousands of dollars in 2011 to examine the education system of 2008?  Since then educational policy has changed completely and new priorities have been set.

Some countries did not participate in the mentioned research..

This year, a conference "Using Student Assessment Results for Education Quality and Systems Strengthening," was held in Eschborn, Germany under the aegis of the World Bank. Education specialists and experts from leading countries took part in it. Many countries, including Singapore, expressed concerns on the methodology of the mentioned research. All countries have their own national curriculum and are oriented to achieve the specific results within the concrete period. For example, Ukraine and Belarus have a 11- year schooling system, in the US, all states have individual curriculum, therefore, some of countries decided not to participate in this research.

The Georgian educational system is not perfect, that is why we are undertaking reforms in 47 directions, nevertheless, when the international non-governmental organization applies the Ministry with a proposal to conduct the research which aims to assess the Georgian educational system with the same methodology applied to evaluate the education sector in Vanuatu, for example, I think, it is not relevant. An accesses to education is very low in this country, Georgia does not face the similar problem. If we cite the findings of the studies of the UNICEF, an access to education is very high in Georgia. Therefore, the Ministry is not going to fund those researches that do not produce any outcomes.

Will the Ministry participate in the international researches?

Unless the mistakes are corrected, the Ministry is not planning to take part in international researches. Though, it is noteworthy that, the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement under the Ministry undertakes national assessment of student academic performance within the scope of its activities.