Meeting with the President
07.06.2012
The President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili met the successful schoolchildren and teachers in the Teacher’s House. The meeting was attended by those schoolchildren who have completed the basic education with honors and those teachers who have passed the integrated exam in English and Computer and fell under top 25% of the best teachers. 

The President talked about the prospective changes in the national exams system, at the same time, he highlighted the importance of introduction of unified national exams 7 years ago.  It ensured selection of the best students for the universities, as the exams were based on the just, transparent, and meritocratic assessment system. Nevertheless, according to the President’s opinion, the unified national exams had some negative impact as well; in particular, school attendance rate was decreased by 10th, 11th, 12th graders as they were focused on getting preparing for the national exams. The new leaderships of the Ministry took various measures to return the schoolchildren to the school. Thus , a role of the school has been increased.

By the initiative of the President, from 2012-2013, a new system of t he national examinations will be introduced. The entrants will have to pass 8 exams + general ability test to become students. The results of the exams will be revealed instantly. The similar model is used by many countries in Europe, including France and Germany.  The President also remarked that the school students will have opportunity to take classes in general ability at the school level. This will have a positive impact on the families of the school students, as they won’t have to spend much money on providing the tutoring for their children in each exam.

During the meeting, the President also referred to the teacher certification exams, and highlighted that 41000 teachers have been registered for the certification exams this year, this fact proves to be very important in terms of enhancing the quality of education at schools, mentioned the President.

In the end of the meeting, the President awarded the successful schoolchildren with the computers.