Activity Report
Reporting Period: March 2002 - March 2003
by
Valerian Melikidze
Activities during the first six months of fellowship proceeded in accordance
with the previously approved timetable. Naturally the timetable was
altered somehow, but in general I was able to adhere to the original plan.
Besides participation in four OSI Policy Fellowships Seminars (in March,
June, October 2002, March 2003) I was mainly engaged in research and data
collecting activities in the following areas:
· Current state, organization and management
of school education system in Georgia;
· Social-economic development trends, fiscal
policies, organization and management of school education financing;
· Alternative (non-government) school financing;
· Legal framework of school education management
and financing.
In pursuit of research goals I established and maintain constant contacts
with the following organizations and programs –
· Ministry of Education (departments of Finance
and Human Resources);
· Ministry of Finance (Budget Department);
· Budget Office of Parliament of Georgia;
· State Department of Statistics;
· Open Society – Georgia Foundation-The Education
Reform Support Agency Project (RSA) ;
· The WB Georgian Education System Strengthening
and Realignment Project;
· Tbilisi city department of education;
· Georgian Social Investment Fund.
Besides I conducted intensive consultations with leading local experts
on problems of general socio-economic development trends, local governance
and financing, namely at Ministry of Economy, Caucasian Institute of Peace,
Democracy and Development and Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International
Studies (Prof. V. Papava, former Minister of Economy of Georgia).
During this time I also had a number of meetings with mentor, Mr. V.
Sanadze to discuss my activities as well as to ensure his support for my
interviews with MoE officials. We also shared our respective views on organization
and financing of school education system in Georgia and problems leading
to emergence of corruption on school level.
Especially during the second part of my fellowship I spend a plenty of
time with Mr. G. Shervasidze, expert of the WB Georgian Education System
Strengthening and Realignment Project, who prepared the first detailed
and reliable inventory of the local public school system. Extremely valuable
information provided by Mr. Shervasidze allowed me to gain much better understanding
of structure of Georgian school system, especially drawbacks associated
with its organization and management.
During this period I also worked on preparation of survey on corruption
on a school level, which was conducted during November-December 2002. This
part of initial research program underwent the most important changes.
Initially it was planned to interview 500 respondents among school officials
and parents asking them the same questions. Later though it turned out
to be more feasible to develop separate questionnaires for parents and
school principals as well as to increase number of respondents up to more
than 900, covering thus about 10% of Georgian schools. A principal
and two parents were interviewed at each school in order to cross-check their
answers and make results of survey more reliable. The survey was conducted
by students of Department of Human Geography of Tbilisi State University,
selected and led by Dr. F. Zurikashvili, Associate Professor of the same
department.
Results of survey were finally processed in January 2003. As compared with
formal data obtained from the other (mostly official) sources, they altered
my previous ideas about corruption in Georgian public school system to a
large extent. Primarily as a result of survey I had to downplay the role
of corruption inside schools and to pay more attention to corruption stemming
from misaapropriation of money intended for education system, by local
authorities. Results of survey also led me to an important conclusion that
process of corruption inside schools is not as important and harmful as a
wide spread attitude of both principals and parents, who more often than
not do not see illegal practices (including those associated with illegal
money transfer) as something that should be avoided and condemned, but regard
them as pretty usual part of everyday life.
Results of my research are summarized in Policy and Research Papers. Major
findings were also presented on March 11 during a public lecture at CEU,
in Budapest.
My activities during this period, especially interactions with other fellows
during IPF seminars in Budapest led me to idea to establish an Education
Policy Program for Transcaucasus region based on cooperation of scholars
and NGO representatives from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Its main objectives
are thought to be promotion of equitable school education, free of “shadow
financing” and inequality as well as stronger participation of parents and
other representatives of local communities in decision-making on school
level. Right now together with my Armenian and Azeri colleagues I’m working
on plans for establishment this Program.
Created: March 24, 2003, Author V. Melikidze
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