Dec 16, 2009
Georgia Needs Real Education Reform
by Michael Cecire
RFE/ RL is reporting that Georgian teachers are protesting in Tbilisi to demand unearned pay. While properly compensated educators should certainly be a priority, it is not a final objective. Educating students is the real goal.
Philadelphia | Georgian teachers are taking to the streets, according to a news report filed by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and posted on their website. The reason for the protests? Georgian teachers are demanding the Soviet-era customary “13th month” salary payment, which had been discontinued in recent years.
There is certainly a logic to this, especially considering that Georgia, despite a surprisingly resilient economy, has not gone unscathed by the global economic downturn. And teachers in Georgia, including in wealthier Tbilisi, are known for being poorly paid and must often rely on private tutoring to make ends meet – an unofficial but widely-known practice that almost certainly negatively impacts classroom time. These pressures, aggravated by seemingly lavish government spending on things like holiday decorations and fanciful lighting, have compelled the protesters to gather on Rustaveli Avenue in front of the Parliament building and demand their share.
At the same time, Georgia’s public education system is in extremely poor shape. While the country certainly has many terrific teachers, antiquated teaching methods and a deeply rooted culture of seniority over merit – not to mention the decided lack of performance standards and the very real conflict of interest of private tutoring versus classroom instruction – make the protesters’ demands difficult to accept. But, yet again, many of the problems that inhibit quality teaching stem from a lack of sufficient public investment.
Georgia might consider developing parallel school districts – like that of the Recovery School District of New Orleans, Louisiana, which has seen tremendous improvement in teacher and student performance by embracing key performance standards, charter schools, and salary incentives for teachers [1]. Georgia would do well to remake the system, piece-by-piece, to not only put education back on track – which languishes in performance, as measured by the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Rankings [2] – but to also properly motivate and compensate professional educators.
Either way, the solution is certainly not to be found in resurrecting an old, and somewhat irrational, Soviet custom. While it may put a little more cash into the pockets of teachers, it it unlikely to improve education standards or prove to be a sustainable solution to Georgia’s education problems. Such money would be better invested in reforming the system entirely.
Photo: Former First Lady and educator Laura Bush Speaks with Georgian First Lady Sandra Roelofs about education. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Footnotes
[1] See: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200701/waldman-katrina
[2] Source: http://investor.ge/issues/2009_5/02.htm
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Michael very nice topic. Teachers really aren’t payed officially well , but as I know higher then in past years. Considering that most people in Georgia own homes and don’t have to pay monthly rent, that makes some difference. Not much though, and Gov’ can’t generalize that or bring as a reason for payment. But we can :)
However, as you mentioned most money is made by tutoring in $$$ Parents give teachers of their children big respect (because future of their children is somehow in their hands). Everybody as much as for them possible ;) :) This is not good for class in general. There are many reasons and aspects. One of them is that teachers feel they do a lot, if they really do great job at their tutor class and they miss that not whole class is benefiting.
I am suggesting to abolish partly free school system. To don’t punish those, who do’t have enough money, payment for school must be made, lets say some % from monthly wage of parents. I think that would be fair. If parent have no job, or very little income, they wont pay anything. It will make money, which now goes private to go official to teachers. Then state will exactly know how much they are paid and Tax will be taken as well (I don’t think now gov is getting taxes from private lessons, teachers don’t report it)
This will make life of school more fair, because per private tutorials only teachers of some subjects are making good money, not physic teacher for example. So when school will cost, income will be divided by all teachers in school by their ours. It’s fair then only having some bossy reach status teachers in school :)
next nice thing about it is, that schools will make good money, which will really offer good education. Nobody will pay to school which has nothing to offer. So automatically parents will seek for content and real education will develop. So system will make system better :)
But I am not sure about realization of this good idea :) most reach parents will have enough contacts to make themselves ‘poorest of the country’ so system may become worse for those who has not much. But viewed it theoretically, I like my idea :)