According to the Law of Georgia on Medical Activity[1], postgraduate medical education can take place only in accredited institutions and/or medical schools from March 2009 onwards. This seems to be a good initiative. Presumably, the goals of this law were to promote higher quality education for future doctors in the country and to deliver higher quality healthcare to the population of Georgia. These are relevant goals, of course, as the life of a human being in terms of both length and quality is and should be the most serious concern for every country....

  MATH EDUCATION AND GROWTH: RECENT EVIDENCE Mathematical literacy has always been a key factor in improving a country’s productivity and competitiveness. Stanford University’s Eric Hanushek has shown that there is a positive relationship between students’ performance in mathematics tests and economic growth. This is not at all surprising. Proficiency in math implies a high-level of cognitive skills among the labour force, in other words a high quality of human capital, which leads to technological innovation and productivity gains. Another more re...

The private provision of childcare in Georgia’s cities has been on the rise during the last few years as is especially evident in the capital. Many of the new private kindergartens (KG) are said to provide very good quality services, helping enrich the set of preschool educational choices available to parents (or, rather, their children). Private KGs may be quite a bit more expensive relative to the public alternative, yet their share of the market is increasing over time, suggesting that more and more Georgian families are willing to pay a premium for b...

As reported in our Khachapuri Index Column, the prices of key khachapuri ingredients have started rising in July, given their strong correlation with the annual cycle of agricultural production in Georgia. A standard portion of Imeretian khachapuri can now be cooked at slightly more than 3GEL, on average. Now, while 3GEL does not sound like a lot for the expats and the better off Georgians, it may be beyond reach for many of the less fortunate Georgian households. To remind ourselves: about 9.2% of Georgia’s population (close to 400,000 people) are ...

Putting “choose” in quotation marks is the main part of the title and a hint to my subjective view on the issue to be discussed in this post. Based on my own experience and on the experience of my friends and acquaintances I came to the conclusion that most Georgian youths do not autonomously choose to get higher education, rather their choice is made directly by their parents. This is the case when parents impose their will upon their children. This is a case of paternalism, which means imposing your own will upon another person for his/her own good. Th...

In recent years, many countries in Europe and the former Soviet Union have seen an explosion in university enrollment. During approximately 10 years (from 1999 until 2010) higher education enrollment increased by 64% in Central and Eastern Europe, 27% in Central Asia and South Caucasus, and 19% in Western Europe and North America (see UNESCO).     1999-2005 2005-2010 1999-2010 Low enrollment  level in 1999  (below 30$) Country ...