Gov’t vows to invest 1/4th of state budget in education

The Georgian Dream government gives promises that it will invest one-fourth of the state budget for educational purposes, to provide quality education inside the country through which poverty and occupation challenges would be overcome.

The government claims that increasing the budget for the Ministry of Education will start this year and reach its culmination in 2022.

Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has claimed that the budget spending on education will amount to 1,600,000,000 GEL in 2019 and the money will increase in all the following years.

“In 2020 the funding will reach two billion GEL, in 2021- 2, 500,000,000 GEL and in 2022- 3, 400,000,000 GEL,” Bakhtadze said.

He stated that in 2022 the funding will reach the one-fourth of the state budget and, accordingly, six percent of GDP.

Bakhtadze stated that in 2012 when the Georgia Dream came to power, the budget for education amounted to about 700 million GEL.

The reform announced by the Georgian Dream government last year, which will be implemented by the Education Ministry of Georgia, includes the provision of new learning methods in Georgian public schools, particular support to pre-school and vocational education, changes in common national exams for higher education, modern infrastructure in education institutions and increased salaries for teachers.

The opposition is skeptical of the decision of the government and says that allocating boosted funds might not receive results in the situation when the government is not consecutive in its steps.

The opposition once again criticized the Education Ministry decision to abolish the university-entry exams by the National Exam Centre, which was an innovation provided by the previous, United National Movement government to defeat corruption in the field.