Plans to Reform Academy of National Sciences Spark Debates

Members of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and representatives of academic circles gathered on October 16 in Tbilisi?s Philharmonic Hall and voiced their protest against the Education Ministry?s plans to reform the Academy.

The reformation plan involves changes in financing the NAS, which as the Education Minister Kakha Lomaia said, will put an end to ?corruption? in the Academy and make it more transparent. Criminal charges have recently been brought against officials of the NAS for the suspected embezzlement of funds.

But President of the National Academy of Sciences Tamaz Gamkrelidze and other members of the Academy claim that the reform will ?kill science in Georgia.? Some of the opposition politicians – including parliamentarians from the New Rights party – backed the National Academy of Sciences and criticized the authorities for these planned reforms. The NAS has also secured support of the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, who called on the authorities for a cautious approach to this issue.

At the meeting on October 16 the NAS members appealed President Saakashvili and demanded the resignation of Education Minister Kakha Lomaia.

Despite the protest, authorities are determined to finalize the reforms. Leading parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party Giga Bokeria said at the parliament?s session last week that ?the reform will be carried out anyway in order to change the current [NAS], which is one of the holdovers of the Soviet past.?

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