On April 21, ISET hosted a public lecture by Tornike Kadeishvili, a resident professor and the head of the Scientific Board of the Andrea Razmadze Mathematical Institute. Professor Kadeishvili spoke about unexpected uses of mathematics in different fields of study, as well as how it can be applied to our everyday lives.
On 21 April 2016, ISET hosted Maria De Paola from the University of Calabria, who presented a paper by Vincenzo Scoppa and De Paola herself, entitled 'Procrastination, Academic Success and the Effectiveness of a Remedial Program'.
According to GeoStat estimates, real GDP grew by 2.6% year over year in February 2016. This growth rate is an improvement over the 0.8% growth observed in the previous months. Still, in order to reach the predicted quarterly 2.9% growth (the ISET-PI forecast for Q1 real growth), the economy would have to have expanded by at least 5.4% in March. While the actual growth for March is likely to be lower than that figure, the increases in the consumer and business confidence indices (CCI, BCI) in the last month can be interpreted as good signs for the economy going forward.
We started forecasting the annual growth rate at the beginning of 2014 (see our January 2014 and February 2014 publications for a note on methodology). Based on this month’s data, we expect annual growth in 2016 to be 2.0% in the worst-case or “no growth” scenario, and 4.5% in the best-case or “average long-term growth” scenario.
Georgia's education system seems to be broken. It is no longer corrupt, which is good, but it does not deliver the quality that we all want and need. Our teachers are among the lowest paid in Georgia and in the world. Quality is an issue at all levels of education, starting with preschools and ending with graduate and post-graduate education.