School leavers’ choices

The current system in Georgian universities is based on vouchers. Those who pass the national exams decide for themselves where to study on the basis of these vouchers.

Statistics show that 53% of state financing for study is concentrated on the social sciences, law and business areas while all the other subjects put together shared the other 47%. The three above mentioned directions attract students most of all and it is generally accepted that these professions give young people a better chance to sell their knowledge and get a well-paid job, but the financing of other disciplines is dramatically decreasing. Humanities and arts funding has decreased from 18 to 11% of the education budget, science and technology from 15 to 8%, healthcare from 14 to 4.5%, engineering and industry from 7 to 2%, agriculture and veterinary science from 1 to 0.24%, and teaching from 2% to 0.075%.

Analyst Nino Goguadze thinks that if things continue like this very soon we will have no specialists in humanities, arts, science and technology, mathematics or computer science and no doctors, engineers, agriculture specialists and teachers. The conclusion one should draw from this is that there are certain shortcomings in the education system and if solutions are not found immediately the consequences could be dire.