Middle East > Georgia > Georgia Education Profile 2012

Georgia: Georgia Education Profile 2012

2012/03/12

          更多  

 

 

 

Georgia Ecducation Profile 2O12

Because education was hit extremely hard by the transformation crisis and by entrenched corruption in the 1990s, educational reform became a priority after the Rose Revolution. Strategies applied can be roughly divided in two. On the one hand, the government introduced new methods of financing, management and quality control. On the other hand, with rising budget revenues government spending on educational needs was increased. As a result, the self-management capacities of educational institutions expanded to a significant degree, centralized tests for university entry were established, the number of universities was significantly reduced in the course of a centrally managed accreditation process, open competition for academic positions was institutionalized and in absolute terms public spending was three times higher in 2007 compared to 2003. Despite impressive progress, a number of shortcomings remain. In relative terms, budgetary expenditure on education remained fairly stable at 3% of GDP and is very low even in comparison to other post-soviet states.

To name just one consequence, despite significant rises in teachers’ salaries, which went up from $63.5 in 2005 to $132 in 2007, they are still too low to ensure livelihood. As a rule, teachers still need to take additional work. Moreover, with more emphasis given to secondary education in recent years, new problems began to surface. Schools now have more autonomy in financial issues with boards of trustees exercising oversight, but some of them clearly fail to act in a responsible manner. To date, no mechanisms are in place to ensure accountability and independence in decision-making. Finally, according to a poll conducted in 2008, universities continue to suffer from corruption. Whereas formerly students paid bribes in order to get admission, now they pay for grades.