Transcript of Saakashvili's address to teachers in Borjomi

I welcome you all!

I asked the education minister and Borjomi's single mandate MP to call you, local teachers, here for a special meeting because I wanted to meet you very much.

A new school year is beginning and I want to share my thoughts on the education system with you. For me you are the most important people in this system!

Together with the restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity and its reunification, education is the highest priority for me and for the government which I lead. Creating an educated society, ensuring the progress of people employed in the education sector and, most importantly, valuing these people are of utmost importance.

We began with nothing - you will recall what situation we were in before. When this government came to power, the state owed a total back salary debt to Georgia's teachers in the amount of 44m lari.

What was the average school like in Georgia? It was a school where the roof leaked water, where there was no heating, where the floors were torn up, where all the equipment was dilapidated, where the children themselves would have to gather the money they needed because the schools did not have sufficient financing of their own.

This was a great dilemma. We began investing money to create a normal school system.

Of course I would rather put more money towards teachers' salaries, but the legacy that we inherited demanded a cardinal change in the infrastructure of our education system.

By 2010 - this is not far off - Georgia will not have a single school that does not resemble schools in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway or Japan.

All schools will have heating systems - it is very important to me that children not freeze during the winter. All schools will have as many computers as the schools in advanced world countries have; in this respect we will reach the level of Eastern Europe. All schools will have the necessary equipment and supplies - desks, textbooks and so on.

This is very important.

The next issue is that of encouraging and providing incentive to teachers, offering them better training and in general, appreciating them.

From 1 January, the average salary for teachers in Georgia will be 200 lari per month. Salaries will continue to be increased. Each tetri that is freed up by the completion of repair works on a school will not be invested in other sectors - it will be used to increase teachers' salaries.

We do not intend to reduce financing for the education system. Our goal is to further increase this 200 lari and ensure that you are well compensated.

In addition, we must introduce new professions and new technologies at every level, in every subject. We do not have oil or gas. Georgia's economy has suffered from the catastrophic increase in the price of oil of late, which has reached 80 dollars per barrel. This has caused an increase in the price of petrol and, consequently, foodstuffs and the overall cost of living.

We do not have very cheap labour. Chinese workers, for example, work for much less money than Georgian specialists.

Therefore, Georgia's niche in any sphere is qualified specialists. What is qualification?

Labourers in Georgia today differ greatly from labourers in Georgia 20 years ago. Today workers know how to use computers, because they need to know how to use these systems; they must also have extensive knowledge about the electronic sphere; they must have a good general education base so that they can manage to learn new things and create value-added products.

Yesterday we opened a technical-vocational education centre - a so-called "American school" - in Karchret, Kakheti Province.

What has changed in the education system over the past years and what did we have to offer people? We offered them secondary and tertiary education institutions, as colleges and technical-vocational education centres had been transformed into universities and academies. This was of course absurd and a result of the then government's poor policies.

Now there is a wider selection. Today we are offering people secondary education, technical education, vocational education (beekeeping, winemaking, etc) and also tertiary education.

We have also made it possible in higher education to obtain bachelor's and master's degrees and for people to pursue a career in academics.

This is a very significant improvement over what there was before.

That is why the role of the teacher is becoming more and more important. The building of the Kachreti vocational education centre was completely destroyed, but that has changed and new people have begun studying there.

The director of the facility has over 30 years work experience. All people with as much energy, motivation, and sense of innovation should serve the country like that.

Out of a building covered in moss he created a wholly new hearth of education, where young people learn to grow grapes in the vineyard nearby; they also grow wheat and learn to care for livestock. And in parallel, they learn how to use computers and master various other professions.

This school is preparing workers for Kachreti, Gurjaani, Sagarejo, Telavi and other nearby areas, but in the first place these institutions are arming people with the skills necessary to provide for their families. This is a very important change for us.

We must understand that today the fiercest competition is in the education sphere.

Apart from reforming the police in Georgia and carrying out other reforms, we have begun in these last several years to appreciate knowledge and labour.

The national standardized university entrance exams which [Education Minister] Kakha Lomaia and other education sector personnel have been fighting so hard for have made it so that today no-one can get into higher education institutions if they do not have the relevant knowledge.

One friend of mine told me that not one of his friend's children was able to pass the test and get into university - the children of one of Tbilisi's most famous and influential families failed the tests.

Meanwhile, students from Borjomi, Oni, Lechkhumi, Dusheti and other regions who did have the relevant knowledge did get in.

A survey conducted three years ago showed Georgia ranked number one in terms of bribe-taking in the education sector. This indicator is now at zero, as knowledge has come to be valued above all. We have become a different country, a different society.

Teachers are now regarded as heroes, so it is necessary to encourage them.

Not long ago a Georgian teenager won first place at the world academic oympiad. This happened for one simple reason - we have begun to value knowledge. This kid had a stimulus to work harder.

All of the teachers whose students win academic olympiads should be given medals and an additional 200 lari per month for one year. Those whose students win international Olympiads, however, should receive special medals and an additional 500-600 lari per month for a year.

We must expand on this and give out such awards to many more people.

I also want to ask you to present many teachers who you think are worthy of the Order of Merit. We must select the most outstanding and hard-working teachers to receive not only this honour, but also additional monetary compensation. There should be more than a thousand of such people.

It is very important that we value and appreciate these people, who over the past few years have kept up the standards necessary for our future development.

My mother is a university professor. She had a salary of 120 lari before, but now the minimum salary for professors is 700 lari per month.

I know that a lot of painful processes have accompanied the reforms being carried out in this country. For example, many teachers have been unable to get into certain departments and salaries remain low, but those who we keep on staff must be given more and more opportunities. Everything is happening in stages.

Of course, were it not for the repairs carried out in schools it would be possible to assign teachers a salary of 400 lari, but this is how society is developing.

Let us take the hospital programme as an example. The state does not have enough money to build 100 hospitals, but we can sell off the medical facilities in central Tbilisi for a lot of money - because land in the centre is much more expensive - and build new hospitals equipped with modern technologies and equipments across Georgia. We need to build them first of all in the places where they are most needed.

We must pass through several stages of development.

If not for the battle against corruption, the establishment of discipline, the development of the economy and economic growth - which will soon reach 14-15 per cent - we could not accomplish these concrete goals.

We must inculcate a new ideology in schools, one which we all must shape together. In the 1990s Georgians developed a psychological complex of being defeated. This disease was prevalent not only in the 1990s. For many decades our conquerors went to great lengths to instill in us the idea that we Georgians could not manage anything independently, that we could not do anything on our own and that it was better to live together with them and obey them completely.

I watched the rugby match yesterday. We truly have amazing guys on that team. In the first half they played very well but in the second half they fell apart.

In every battle there is a moment when both sides think about conceding. The one who overcomes this fear of defeat, does not give up and fights to the end is the one that emerges victorious.

We Georgians need to learn this - we must learn to fight to the end.

Let us take the example of football. There is a whole generation of Georgian football superstars. Some of them continue to play well today, but you can tell that some of them, no matter what stars they were in other countries, could not play in Georgia. That is because this psychology of defeat prevailed here a priori.

Today 16-17-year-old boys are playing who have not experienced this feeling and who are not simply being pushed along by this inertia of helplessness.

We must internalize one thing: despite the fact that there are not many of us, we are a multiethnic people with a very special culture; we have great traditions and we are a people of great talent.

Throughout the history of world wars, the strongest soldiers have been Georgians, but until now Georgia has not had a strong army of its own.

Georgian artists achieved great success, but unfortunately, the majority of them are associated with another country. The same is true in science and other fields.

The best Russian missiles were designed by Georgians.

The best nuclear physicists in Dubna are Georgians, though they do not say this openly. Georgian scientists won a tender to conduct experiments currently under way in Switzerland. They are building the most advanced scientific centre in the world...

I could name countless other examples. Our task is to ensure that Georgia demonstrate to the world just how educated our personnel are and how elite our specialists are.

All of this is being built with the "bricks" that are made here in public schools.

That is why at this time my number one goal is to ensure that each of you perceive that the state is your main pillar of support. Not only does the state depend on your support, but the state also supports you and appreciates you and your labour.

We are a country with great prospects. Today I visited Bakuriani and Borjomi and I saw how good things are happening everywhere.

I often hear: "Why is the president always opening things?"

In fact, it would be impossible to attend the openings of all new and refurbished facilities in the country. Three years ago facilities like this would open once every five or six months. But today several dozen objects are frequently opened at the same time and is often possible only to stop by.

The same has happened today - I saw today that all of Borjomi is a giant construction site. But this is only the beginning.

This government has been working on not only restoring old resorts, but also on creating new resort facilities in new places. For example Sighnaghi, which for centuries to come will be a source of great pride for Georgians.

We are building a completely new resort in Shaori, Racha, which will be unequalled in its beauty and development.

While in Bakuriani I noticed that there were a great many tourists from Ukraine, the Baltic States, Poland and other Eastern European countries.

So we truly have great prospects and a bright future!

We have all seen what we are capable of doing together - we are capable of creating the strongest police force, we are capable of truly defeating corruption, we are capable of holding fair university entrance exams - which as you know was one of the largest sources of corruption in Georgia - and we are capable of building good roads, parks and businesses.

I want to ask you to stand together and take part in the building of this country.

I visited the monument to [19th-20th century statesman and author/poet] Ilia Chavchavadze, who was murdered one hundred years ago today. Georgia can be defeated only if it is not united.

In 1992-93 they managed to defeat us only because more than half of Georgia's regions did not get involved in defending the country and because civil war was raging and we were all fighting against each other.

I am confident that this can never be repeated, but we must work very hard to ensure this and to ensure that we continue to progress.

We must roll up our sleeves and work hard so that even our worst enemies cannot manage to create artificial problems for us from outside.

The school that is now being built in Borjomi, which will be finished by the end of my first term in office, is a great stimulus. Many such schools are being built across Georgia.

I have been to many countries; I assure you that it is very rare for children to go to such brilliant educational institutions. The first bricks for this have been laid across Georgia. We must do all we can to ensure that no-one can stop this building process and that each of us live in such conditions and in such an environment.

Thank you very much!

Press Office
of the President of Georgia