Saakashvili’s U-Turns for Teachers

President Saakashvili criticized at a meeting with a group of public school teachers on March 7 many of those steps which were initiated in the sector under the leadership of ex-education minister, Aleksandre Lomaia, who is now secretary of the National Security Council.

President Saakashvili address to teachers, which lasted more than half an hour, was aired live by the television stations, resembling one of those meetings, he was holding with various professional groups during his re-election campaign.

“You are elite of our society, the real elite and not like those who appear everyday on the TV screens and who think that they are the elite,” he told teachers. “You are the elite which create new Georgia… Education is the strategic sphere for us.”

He said that he planned to restore a practice of “distributing thirteenth salary to teachers” – an additional monthly salary at the end of each year.

“There is totally incomprehensible system of one-year contracts with school teachers. This will be canceled. Teachers are in schools forever, without any timeframes. We should cancel this type of limitations,” he said.

Saakashvili also said that practice of testing teachers – which is necessary for public school teachers to continue working – would be replaced with re-training programs. “We [the authorities] should not require from teachers to pass tests; it is our [the authorities’] obligation to re-train you,” he said.

He then also criticized practice of closing down of those schools, especially in the rural areas, where there were a small number of pupils.

Saakashvili also said that paid annual leave for teachers should again become 48 days instead of current 24. “Previously there was 48-day leave for public school teachers; but someone, I do not know why, has decided to decrease it to 24 days; this is nonsense; we should restore 48-day leave,” he said.

He also slammed practice of selecting schools for qualified principals at random. “This was also totally incomprehensible system,” Saakashvili said.

He said that the government-funded vouchers for social assistances would be available not only for teachers, but also for technical staff of schools.

He, however, has also hailed the previous leadership of the Education Ministry’s for undertaking “a very important and very good reform” on introducing Unified National Exams for enrolling in universities, that has curbed corruption in the system.

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