Mikheil Saakashvili Visits Ilia Chavchavadze State University
On Friday, November 6, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili paid a visit to Ilia Chavchavadze State University.
According to Saakashvili "major conflict which arose during the last five years concerning the reforms to be carried out, is the conflict between an old and modern Georgia.
"During the meeting with students and professors the President talked about necessity to change the way of thinking. In his opinion remnants of particularistic-nomenclature-feudal thinking are still present in the country and they definitely do not serve the interests of either society or those of the state.
The President also talked about planed changes in the education system and special initiatives targeting ethnic minorities and their involvement in higher education. According to new initiative ethnic minorities will only be obliged to pass a General Skills Tests in their native language in order to get enrolled in a five year BA program the first year of which will be dedicated to the study of Georgian language. There are also some changes to be carried out in an examination system. It is planned to introduce centralized school graduation exams.
Meeting with Mikheil Saakashvili was conducted in a dialogue mode and students had an opportunity to receive answers to their questions from the President himself.