New academic year underway
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Tuesday, September 17
A new academic year has started at Georgia's public schools and universities. Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Tamar Sanikidze, congratulated the students on the beginning of the academic year from public school No. 47. Later she went to Tbilisi State University (TSU) with new rector of TSU, Lado Papava and Patriarch Ilia II who blessed the students. Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, Davit Sergeenko, also congratulated the students of the Medical University.
Prime Minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, also sent a text of congratulations, where he said that he is happy that to some extent, the state is already able to foster children getting higher education in term of creating better conditions. “This is only the beginning of the positive changes that we must make for our children's education. We should give them every opportunity to create all the necessary conditions to obtain a high-quality education, and we will invest all our efforts in this,” the PM stated.
In parallel with the ceremony of congratulation, a rally was held by students, who insisted on increasing the quality of education. Papava said that he is going to change everything over time and it is impossible to do everything at once. Sanikidze also said that they do not have “a magic stick” and the changes need time, but already many positive steps have been taken in efforts at solving the problems.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the country has met the new academic year with many novelties. For example, more then 60, 000 teachers and 20, 000 administrative and technical staff received increased salaries, all public school students received school books from state, and children ill with leukemia will have lessons in a special school located within M. Iashvili Central Children's Hospital. Upgrading libraries, adding syntactic programs to the studying process, financing doctorates and other activities are also on the agenda.
TSU has more than 5,000 first-year students for the new academic year including the students enlisted for language training who have Abkhazian, Azerbaijani, and Armenian nationality. In 2013 the largest number of 100% grant owners has been enrolled at TSU. TSU is also a leader with students that have partial funding. The student who has the highest score for national examinations, Tatia Shatia, is listed on the Faculty of Precise and Natural Sciences Department of Physics of TSU.
