The Role of Civil Sector in Education Reform Should Increase

Presently, the issues of education reform and changes needed to adopt these reforms are being widely discussed by various factions in Georgia. In particular, the issue of the role of non-governmental organizations within these processes of reform is of great interest.

Many of the needed reformations of the education field began under the supervision of the previous authorities when, in the Spring of 2001, the World Bank financed the Education System Realignment and Strengthening Project. However, in 2003, civil experts responded to this initial project in a negative manner.

Aluda Goglichidze of the International Institute for Educational Policy, Planning and Management (EPPM) said “the project received a negative estimation, and this confirmed that the authorities did not use, first and foremost, the resource of the non-governmental sector. In any reform the quality of involvement of different groups takes the most clear and crucial place. Actually, lacking serious revision, this project was doomed to fail from the very beginning, since it did not express the position and vision of particular interest groups.”

Generally, any changes or reforms implemented in a democratic state without public participation will be non-effective. Carrying out democratic reforms is not a job for the authorities alone, they need assistance from different members of civil society and civil society groups in particular; groups such as mass-media, non-governmental organizations etc.

Mass media plays important role while introducing democratic values to society or providing the general public with timely and updated information on ongoing processes; however, unlike  both the authorities and mass media, non-governmental organizations can act more freely and effectively, because they are less dependent on public image. They can, and often do, fix their positions towards those issues which are often unpopular among the society.

As for current reforms, Gigi Tevzadze, adviser of the Education Minister, said “changes are to be made in all the three fields of formal education – school, professional and higher education. Radical, institutional changes should be made. In particular, these changes should focus on the management of particular institutions of these fields, the contents of teaching, methods, retraining of teachers and, what is the main thing, the systems of financing.”

Two projects in particular, implemented within the Citizens Advocate Program (CAP), are very interesting from the financial and management points of view. One of them, the “Project on Development and Financial Transparency of the Education System” was implemented by a coalition of 9 non-governmental organizations from both Tbilisi as well as from the regions. EPPM led this coalition. The project promoted the development of recommendations in two fields: transition to funding per pupil in schools and introduction of the rating estimation system of schools. This project envisaged the transformation from the current system to a system that funds schools based on enrollment. The project also proposed the introduction of uniform academic standards for schools.  The results from the project have already been delivered to the Ministry of Education. Now the inclusion of these financial changes into educational law is being discussed.     

Natia Deisadze, a representative from Save the Children, said: “today the funds in the educational system are distributed undemocratically and non-transparently.”

Currently, work is being done through a continuation of the CAP project that will basically be reflected during the lobbying in the Parliament and will help establish more serious cooperation with the Education Ministry.

It is also worth noting that the Tbilisi City Council has also shown interest in this project. In January 2004 it approved the “Main Directions of the Program on Development of the Educational System in Tbilisi”. Along with changes in regards to the issues of funding and estimating the schools, the program envisages systemic changes in several directions. As Aluda Goglichidze declares, “the Tbilisi City Council has applied to the Institute to prepare this program. After the approval of the main directions, the City Council continued to work with us and even offered to expand the program and participate in its implementation.”

Within the framework of CAP, the association ALPE is implementing an Education Reform Assistance Project titled: “Let’s Build Our School.” The project aims to promote the establishment of a board of trustees within the schools and to further develop a school’s self-governance. The project also involves training components. However, as ALPE Representative Marika Asatiani said, trainings have not been launched yet, owing to the fact that the Parliament has not approved a law in regards to these proposed changes. Consequently, there exist only two models of board of trustees within governmental sector: the models of both the City Council and the Education Ministry. However, these two models represent two different approaches. The present model of the Education Ministry includes only parents on the board of trustees, while the model of City Council foresees inclusion of teachers as well.

As for the law on general education, Gigi Tevzadze says the Education Ministry will soon prepare a final version of the law. “The law envisages administrative decentralization of the school system and its basic principles are the results of the work of civil society, which was subsequently shared by the authorities. Naturally, the authorities will fail to introduce these principles (which implies the training of boards of trustees and administrations of all Georgian schools) without assistance and active participation of civil society” says Gigi Tevzadze.

Generally, it is worth noting that the current authorities cooperate with the non-governmental sector more actively than their predecessors. This could prove instrumental in reforming the ongoing Education System Realignment and Strengthening Project. Of course this does not mean that the non-governmental organizations should refrain from criticizing the authorities; it is just the opposite. This criticism serves as one of the most effective ways for creating an independent position within the education field and encourages the expressing of differing opinions from those held by the authorities. Moreover, the non-governmental sector is indeed a huge resource which was not effectively utilized by the previous authorities.

According to expert assessments, the participation of non-governmental organizations in education reforms and their cooperation with authorities around particular issues does not deprive their monitoring function. They should estimate the activities of the authorities and more actively join the ongoing processes.

“Alternative opinion should exist and this is the single protective mechanism for implementation of reforms” says Aluda Goglichidze.

“Under current conditions, along with opposing the authorities, it is necessary to cooperate with the authorities in those directions, where the authorities simply lack resources” declares Gigi Tevzadze.

In this case, the non-governmental sector should have a uniform position (even if it differs from the opinion held by the authorities). In the opinion of Aluda Goglichidze, it would be desirable to set up a coalition of non-governmental organizations working together in regards to educational issues in an attempt to carry out more effective coordination with each others on the basis of the estimation of one’s own resources.