1. Analysis of State of Georgian General Education System and its Management Aluda Goglichidze June  This study is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of GIPA, PMCG and the policy paper authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government

2. Goal of the Policy Document Goal of the Policy Document is to determine if the reforms and decentralization of management system, which were carried out during the recent years, ensure access to a quality education on a classroom level and make decision on optimal ways of future reforms.

3. Fields of Analysis of State of General Education System and its Management 1.Long-term goals, development policy and relevant environment 2.Power distribution in management system and quality of administration 3.Studying and teaching 4.Human resources 5.Material and technical resources 6.Financial resources

4. History 2001: Project “Education System Realignment and Strengthening Program” was launched; Since 2003 reform is carried out at an impressive scale; Schools were given status of a legal entity of public law and they opened banking accounts; State property was transferred to schools in accordance with regulations of unlimited usufruct; Several semi-subordinated special agencies of the Ministry were established under the status of legal entity of public law; Inefficient and corrupt financing system was changed to a single student oriented financial model; Programs of infrastructure development, school computerization and care about educational environment were launched; National objectives for general education and national curriculum were determined and planning of transition from traditional, didactic teaching methods to active teaching and assessment system started; Professional standards for teachers were prepared and process of their certification was launched; Training program of reform implementation was carried out.

5. I. Strategy and Environment of Reforms (Explanation of Problems) 1.1. Strategic goals of development and policy reference points - the Parliament does not have united long term strategy or policy reference points in regard to development of general education system; 1.2. Values of the education system and development strategies - five values of the education policy put a very weak stress on economic growth. There are significant problems in ensuring of implementation of the equity values too (access to education in villages, mountainous regions and for poor population); 1.3. Decentralization and democratization - decentralization was not followed by a large scale and desired involvement of stakeholders in decision-making process. Neither did it result in improvement of quality of management and education;

6. I. Strategy and Environment of Reforms (Explanation of Problems, part 2) 1.4. Sustainability of the system and inheritance - high rate of reform processes/changes (ministers, legislation…) followed by introduction of large scale novelties; 1.5. Provision of information and analytical data - no access to the data which is necessary for making important decisions in the realm of education policy, scarcity of studies, low quality of public awareness; 1.6. Legislation - insufficient legislation concerning regulation of school life, frequent change of rules.

7. II. Power Distribution in Management System and Quality of Administration (Explanation of Problems) 2.1. Distribution of competencies - distribution of competencies within the system is not balanced, self-government is excluded from real management of schools and its function is reduced to providing aid and support. Approval Ministry of Education and Science Local self- government School Selection / appointment Appointment of director Voucher / determination of upper value Determination of the budget / its management Election Financing Study Curriculum National curriculum School curriculum Schedule Determinati on Aid Support Consent Property Disposal

8. II. Power Distribution in Management System and Quality of Administration (Explanation of Problems) 2.2. Rate of school autonomy - rights and responsibilities of representatives of the Ministry and self-government are not balanced in the school boards; 2.3. Distribution of competencies among administration / stakeholders at the school level - distribution of responsibilities is not clear and inefficient with no appeal mechanisms; 2.4. Administration system at school level - formally director/direction is excluded from management of discipline, process of elaboration of school curriculum. There are no mechanisms of influence in case of low quality teaching. School board/ teacher Director Elects / discharges

9. III. Learning and Teaching (Explanation of Problems) 3.1. Acedemic acheivements of the students - there exists no efficient system of monitoring the management of education quality and academic achievements (statistics, research); 3.2. National and school curriculums - renewal of national curriculum is not based on relevant findings. Management procedures for school curriculum is irrelevant and inefficient; 3.3. Responsibility for low quality education - issue of responsibility for delivering low quality education at schools is not clear and ineffective; 3.4. Management of the discipline - response system for control of attendance and general discipline is disfunctional and inefficient; 3.5. Management of class sessions - students are primarily interested in exam subjects. Teachers are experiencing problems with implementation of new teaching and assessment methods.

10. IV. Management of Human Resources (Explanation of Problems) 4.1. School director - directors of 47% of schools are not elected. Elections and determination of salaries by the school boards are irrelevant and inefficient; 4.2. Direction/administration - there are no professional standards, qualification demands, systems of teacher’s training or retraining; 4.3. Teacher - weak system of training for new teachers, abundance of teachers, nonequal/inefficient and no flexible system of discharge, huge necessity for retraining:

11. V. Management of Material and Technical Resources (Explanation of Problems) 5.1. Study environment - small amount of resources for improvement of school infrastructure (capital expenses constitute 4-5% of education budget). 10% of schools in Georgia are disfunctional because of deterioration of infrastructure, 51% of them are in urgent need for repair. There is a problem of lighting in classrooms; 5.2. School consolidation - there are no criteria or plans for optimization of schools; 5.3. Property management - due to unavailability of resources the process of transfer of property to the schools with unlimited usufruct is still pending.

12. VI. Management of Financial Resources (Explanation of Problems) 6.1. Financing of education - limited financing for education compared to European and Central Asian countries (on average it is 4,4% of GDP, in Georgia 2,6% of GDP). Small fraction of education budget is used for financing of current needs; Salaries and social security contributions for the teachers. 6.2. Financing based on voucher system - irrelevance of existing system with the needs of the school, inefficiency and ineffectiveness despite additional funding for country-side schools of especially poor regions.

13. Tasks To emphasize those issues of the education system which after their solving will ensure elaboration of relevant and viable long-term plans for reforms and contribute to sustainable environment of development; To elaborate such model of power/competency distribution on the school administration level, which would ensure involvement of stakeholders, democratisation, transparency of the system and establish a flexible management system with access to quality education; To determine needed actions which will ensure delivery of quality education on the classroom level and contribute to enhancement of the level of education; To determine priorities which are necessary for achievement of the goals and development of systems of human resources management; To determine necessary changes regarding financing system in order to ensure fair and rational correspondence with the needs of different students and schools.

14. Alternatives 1.1. Reference points for the policy and strategic goals of general education - elaboration of reference points for the policy and strategic goals of general education can be done by: a.structural body within the Ministry; b.a new semi-independent agency (for example an ”Agency for Education Reforms and Strategic Research”); c.an independent organisation or coalition based on the ”free market” principles; d.Prepared document may become an official document of the Ministry and be submitted for approval to the Parliament. 1.2. Strategies of development and policy values of education system - it is possible to: a.simultaneously focus on one or more directions; b.stay focused on existing values or pay more attention to economic growth and equality.

15. 1.3. Decentralization and democracy - in this context we can discuss three alternatives: decentralization, deconcentration and devolution; 1.4. Sustainability of the system and inheritance - in order to ensure sustainability of the system and inheritance, it is necessary to conduct objective assessment of education reforms and make all available information easily accessible; 1.5. Provision of information and analytical data - in order to ensure provision of information and analytical data the Ministry can collect reliable statistical data and analyse it with the help of its own structural bodies or resource centers. It can also commission an independent body in accordance with the ”free market principles”; 1.6. Legislation - in order to improve legislation it is possible to refine existing regulations, carry out their significant reviewing or make some amendments. Alternatives

16. 2.1. Distribution of competencies in order to ensure authority balance within the system: a)Management of schools to be delegated to the self-government bodies; b)Schools to be under dual subordination (resource centers and the local government teams). 2.2. Quality of school autonomy - in order to enhance the school autonomy, rights of the representatives of the Ministry and self-governing bodies (which are members of the school boards) should be limited to the deliberative vote. The right to vote in elections could be granted to them in cases when competencies of these groups increase during decision-making on specific issues, e.g. increase of the school budget. 2.3. Distribution of competencies between the management teams / stakeholders at school level – 1) Changes in the members of school boards: a) participation of teachers to be nominal and limited to one candidate; b) should not participate in the work of the board at all; g) should be at least 2 or 3 times less than the number of teachers. Number of students can be changed as well, namely it may remain as it is now or be increased to four. 2) Increase rights of the founder in case the budget approval process has to be repeated more than two times. Alternatives

17. 2.4. Administration system at the school level - in order to enhance the quality of administration at the school level it is necessary: a) To increase role of the school administration in elaboration of the school curriculum; b) To increase role of the school administration in the process of discipline management; c) To elaborate legislative mechanisms for control of low quality teaching; d) To appoint director based on results of the contest (to be done by the founder). 3.1. In order to enhance academic achievements of the students it is necessary: a)To define specific accreditation as a mechanism of quality management and not the one used for punishment; b)To collect statistical data on student attendance and conduct permanent surveys; g) To elaborate indicators for quality control and establish intervention mechanisms; d) To enhance access to the information on the quality of student education and ensure conduct of public dialogue. Alternatives

18. 3.2. National and school curriculums a) Regular evaluation of the national curriculum and its renewal based on results of the survey; b) Increase of the role of directorate in preparing of school curriculums; c) Decrease of duration of a school year; d) Simplification of a student assessment system; e) Delivery of more information to teachers about evaluation system and their training; f) Inclusion of interests of children with special educational needs into the national curriculum and elaboration of a realistic plan for their implementation; g) Preparing of a program directed towards improvement of the libraries and increase of the role of local self-government in this process. 3.3. Responsibility for the low quality education a) Director, teachers’ board and school board are all to bear their share of responsibility for delivery of low quality education at the school; b) Role of resource centers in the process of quality management has to be increased; c) It is necessary to elaborate strategy towards decrease of the private tuition.

19. Alternatives 3.4. Student attendance and management of general disciplinary regulations 1)Development of the Student’s Code of Conduct and establishment of minimal requirements of internal school regulations; 2)Increase of the role of administration in the process of discipline management. The same applies to the role of director in leading of a disciplinary committee; 3)Activation of monitoring of student attendance registration; 4)Collection of statistical data and following analysis of student attendance and general discipline; 5)Evaluation of the 12th grade curriculums and their tailoring to the needs of the students. 3.5. Modern teaching and learning methods and management of class sessions 1)Defining of the strategy for supply of the teachers with supplementary materials; 2)It is necessary to conduct study about the use of modern teaching and evaluation methods on a permanent basis. Implementation procedures have to be determined based on the results; 3)Teachers should have access to trainings on planning, management and evaluation of student and result oriented processes; 4)It is necessary to conduct trainings for school directors and their deputies on the topic of monitoring of the learning process.

20. Alternatives 4.1. School Director 1)Public school directors must be appointed as a result of a contest (screening of documents, testing, interviews) which is to be carried out by the school founder. This process can be carried out by: a) NGOs; b) A new LEPL c) School Professional Development Center 2) The school board must have the right to start the procedure of discharge of school director. 4.2. Directorate/Administration 1)Development of professional standards for the members of directorate; 2)Development of qualification requirements and selection criteria; 3)Directorate/administration members should be able to receive trainings in accordance with “free market principles”; 4)Development of special guidelines and education materials for directorate/administration staff.

21. Alternatives 4.3. Appointment/discharge and professional development of teachers 1)Development of a plan for optimization of the number of teachers in parallel to reduction of the number of students; 2)Financing of mentor teacher programs; 3)Selection of teachers based on competitions has to be made obligatory; 4)Conduct of research development of training programs for teachers; 5)Development of retirement and pension programs; 6)Enhancement of the role of school directors n the certification process; 7)Linking of teacher attestations to the certification process and introduction of teacher categories; 8)Linking of teachers’ salaries to their qualification; 9)Annulment of the requirement to receive approval of the board in order to strip teachers (who are board members) of their status; 10)Initiate teachers’ rating system; 11)Develop training programs for special education teachers, psychologists and speech therapists.

22. Alternatives 5.1. School environment 1)Enhancement of the role of self-government in the development of school infrastructure; 2)Enhancement of the role of school boards in non-budgetary fundraising; 3)Exchange of positive practices among the schools regarding involvement of alumni in the support of the schools; 4)Development of a program for the change of irrelevant small school desks and furniture. 5.2. School consolidation 1)Development of school consolidation criteria by MES; 2)Conduct of mapping by MES and increase of involvement of resource centers after training of their staff; 3)Development of a comprehensive program for school optimization with consideration of number of students, size of the classrooms, need for transportation etc.

23. Alternatives 5.3. Property management 1)Instead of prior consent from the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Economic Development it should be enough just to inform them about the decision on use of the building; 2)Development by the MES of a program of usufruct transfer for low-income schools; 3)Ensuring of exchange of information on successful property management practices by resource centers. 6.1. Financing of education 1)Increase the state funding for general education; 2)Enhancement of the role of self-governments in school financing; 3)Support of the practice of management of non-budgetary financial resources and development of a relevant legal framework. 6.2. Voucher financing 1)School financing system should be changed to the model which is based on considering of school needs; 2)Development and implementation of staff training which will be relevant for a new system of financing.

24. Recommendations 1.Each stage of the reforms of the general education system of Georgia needs to be assessed with an active involvement of independent experts and with regard to the international best practice analysis. As a result, a long-term development strategy of the general education system ha to be drafted and approved by the Parliament of Georgia; 2. While defining political values and development strategy of general education, special attention has to be paid to the principles of economic growth and equity; 3. The Ministry of Education and Science should pay special attention to collecting of statistical data, identification of research and assessment needs, and support of independent research projects based on the “free market principles”. Universities, NGOs and other institutions should be actively involved in the above-mentioned process;

25. 4. The legal acts on the general education of Georgia have to be modified in accordance with a long-term strategy. Legal acts should regulate functional issues (distribution of competencies, interrelations of different management areas, etc.). Procedures, appeals, and other similar issues should be regulated in accordance with the charter of institutions of general education and be approved by the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia; 5. In order to balance the power in the system, some competencies have to be delegated to the local governance bodies (management of the material, technical, financial and administrative issues). At the same time, the Ministry should set up the standards for the delegated issues and monitor their implementation; 6. Responsibilities of the representatives of the Ministry of Education and local government, who are members of the school boards, should be limited to voting rights, or they can be expanded in accordance with granting of additional duties and wider responsibilities; Recommendations

26. 7. It is good if the school boards are composed of number of parents which is two or three times bigger than the number of teachers. It is also possible to revise the number of pupils (1 chairman, and 1 representative from 10th, 11th and 12th grades); 8. In order to strengthen the principles of accountability it is better to change the election rules for the parents. Accordingly, the reporting procedures should be strictly defined - at least three (3) times per year members of the school board should report to the Parents’ Council. The Parents Council has to be accountable to the parents of their class; 9. The Director should be assigned as a manager of the disciplinary committee, which should also include the representatives of the school management (excluding the accounting department), parents, pupils and teachers;

27. Recommendations 10. In case of disciplinary violations, Direction has to respond in accordance to the minimal requirements stipulated in the internal regulations and approved by the Ministry of Education and Science; 11. The Director issues an administrative-legal note as a response to the violations; the only case that limits his/her decision making power is an expulsion of the pupil. The disciplinary committee gets together once a month in order to review and approve Director’s work. The committee should be able to suggest tougher disciplinary measures, but not be able to act vice-versa; 12. School curriculum (SC) – the project has to be drafted by the school management together with subject departments. Teachers’ board should review the SC project and submit it to the school board for final approval;

28. 13. Responsibilities of school management, school board and teachers’ board should be defined for the cases of delivery of low quality teaching; 14. School budget – school management, with active participation of subject departments, will have to elaborate the budget project and submit it to the school board for approval. In case school board disapproves it, the project will be returned to the direction along with written recommendations. In case the board fails to approve the budget two times it will be given to the founders or immediate higher instance for final evaluation; Recommendations

29. 15. Director has to be appointed as a result of competition (screening of papers, tests, interviews) by the founders who will also have to determine the amount of the salary. It is better, if the competition is administered by the Teacher Professional Development Center; 16. It is better to inform higher instances about the use of the buildings after making decision on this topic; 17. System of school financing should be changed and determined based on the needs of the schools; *Note: The Ministry of Education and Science expressed its readiness regarding taking into consideration part of the recommendations.

30. Contact Details: A Aleksi Aleksishvili (PMCG): Ph: +995 32 921 171; email: a.aleksishvili@pmcg.gea.aleksishvili@pmcg.ge Aluda Goglichidze: Ph: + 995 93 301 060; email: aludag@gmail.com