Education & Science Center to Be Built in Batumi
A new Education and Science Center will be built in Batumi as part of the government’s push to improve education across Georgia. The modern, multiuse seven-hectare space will be centered around a Batumi branch of the Vladimir Komarov School of Physics and Mathematics and will include laboratories, conference halls, sports facilities, indoor recreational areas, a library, science museum, outdoor stadium, and student dormitories.
Speaking at a press conference for the project in Batumi on May 17, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze, promised that his government “will build the most modern educational space in Batumi.
We have very talented children in the Adjara region and this project will be implemented for them.” He expressed his desire for similar spaces to be created in “every corner of Georgia.”
“I have heard a lot of ideas, including baseless criticism, on education being a national priority. It is! Education is the only way to overcome all the challenges faced by Georgia and that makes education our national priority. It can shape Georgia into a successful country in the 21st century and I am strongly convinced that the Georgian nation has a unique talent and potential,” Bakhtadze enthused.
In January, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Mikheil Batishvili, together with Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze and invited guests, laid the foundation stone for the construction of the ‘New Education and Science City’ in Tbilisi. The “city” will be constructed at kilometer 12 of the David Aghmashenebeli Highway leading out of the city in the direction of Mtskheta.
During the ceremony, Batiashvili said that the new ‘city’ will serve as a model of high-quality education, helping reach the goals the government has set out for education reform. He explained that, from his perspective, it is clear that in order to reach the ambitions goals for education reform, which include the development of education clusters, such a multi-functional education complex is necessary. The ‘city’ is envisioned to serve as a hub for the implementation of reforms and to celebrate and build on the achievements of other educational institutions.
Education has become a priority for the current government. The project comes after the government announced plans to increase teachers’ salaries by 150 GEL per month from September 2019 last week. At the announcement of the Batumi Education and Science Center, Bakhtadze said that, “an integral part of the project is to ensure decent conditions of life for teachers. It is my personal tragedy when the average salary of teachers is below even the statistical average for pay in the country.” The government will provide “unprecedented support” for education in Georgia, said Bakhtadze, adding “the system needs new energy, new investments, new vision and we will ensure this.” Under Bakhtadze, the government has pledged to invest one-quarter of the state budget into education, and to increase education spending to 6% of GDP by 2022.
In a March interview with national news network Imedi TV, Prime Minister Bakhtadze announced a new phase in his ongoing education reforms – a focus on modernization and technology. He noted plans to build new, modern kindergartens and fully-technologically equipped schools “in every village, town and city of the country.”
During the interview, the Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of private sector involvement, hoping that an increase in government spending will motivate private companies to match investments in their future workforces. “As a result,” Bakhtadze prophesized, “education will become a dominant sector in the economy.” GEL 1.6 billion ($600 mln) has been allocated for education in the 2019 budget, a significant increase from 2012 when the education budget was just GEL 600 million ($223.5 mln). For 2020, the government is committing GEL 2 billion ($745 mln), GEL 2.5 billion ($931 mln) in 2021, and GEL 3.4 billion ($1.27 bln) in 2022 – a quarter of the annual budget.
By Samantha Guthrie