I welcome everyone!

It has indeed been a very good program and I am glad that it was made possible.

I would like to thank the entire team of the Ministry of Education; I would like to thank Mariam Sajaia and her team, who worked on this program together.

I would like to thank each one of you, my friends, for being able to complete this program with excellence.

This is a new generation, which you represent, with entirely different principles and approaches, a different optimism and work attitude, a different outlook and ambitions.

We are doing everything in order to open up a road towards a better life to your generation and I am very proud of this!

I would like to tell you that I have many plans concerning students.

There will be a significant expansion of financial support, from next year, for those who are willing to study abroad, and the number of students to be sent to the summer schools will increase too.

There will be a significant expansion of state grants from next year as well.

We are building new universities. You know that the new American Technological University is to open in Batumi, and there will be a master’s degree level of study among the existing technical institutions.

We are also building a European political school in Georgia, together with Europeans.

In a nutshell, we are bringing in international standards.

We will invite hundreds of foreign professors next year, and we will send hundreds of our professors abroad to raise their qualification.

Besides this, we need to introduce foreign language studies everywhere, and it is very important in order for each one of you to have prospects.

The examination system will change too. According to the new project, a student will be able to retake exams at the end of every year and in case of sufficient points, he/she will have an opportunity to move from the paid sector to the free sector at the state university.   

Similarly, everyone will be able to take exams at schools.

Based on the reform of the Minister of Education Khatia Dekanoidze, it will be possible to take exams not just once per year, but basically every month. If the university entrant fails to pass in July-August, he/she will be able to pass in October, December or February, i.e. throughout the entire year.

I would also like to discuss with you the issues of a general nature. It is a great opportunity for me to discuss issues of concern for your country.

You represent our nation. You are the generation for whom we had built and are still building the new democratic Georgia for all this years.

You are the generation, which take the first steps in this Georgia.

Perhaps, this generation has been born in a very difficult period, but it has lived and developed in a democratic state.

I would like to address the very girls-and-boys of such a country – to the bright future of our country.

I would like to talk about the challenges that our country faces, and about the prospects that our country has.

The October Parliamentary elections will be the first for many of you, in which you will take part, while some of you can even run for the posts. You probably know that, including at my initiative, the age to run for a deputy has been lowered to 21, and we will already have a few 21 year olds in our list. It is a significant step forward.

I have not come here today to promote any political party, but I, as a president, would like to address you and tell you that it is the fate of our country which is at stake today.

I urge you not to hand to anyone a very lengthy, long-term future of each one of you.

Do not give up your choice to anyone, and do not allow it to happen, as you have to live in this country for a very long time.

Do not do so, that the next 70-80 years you regret that you did not take part in these elections and someone else decided your fate for you…

My student years coincided with the demise of the Soviet Empire, because of that I have seen a lot.

I saw how the country, which no one could imagine would collapse in my childhood years, has collapsed.

I know the price of freedom, but I have seen many misfortunes – I have seen the civil war, the internal conflict, intervention of a foreign force, the ethnic cleansing…

This zone of the territory of Georgia begins several kilometers from here…

The same is true about beautiful Abkhazia, which is in the occupant’s clout for the time being…

The price of freedom is particularly well known to our grandmas and grandpas.

That is precisely why we have to be active.

We have to mobilize so that our enemy’s dream does not come true, and Georgia does not surrender its freedom in favor of any externally encroached political party or actor.

Lets us be mobilized, free, united, strong and patriots, the rest is only up to you to decide.

This is the only thing, which I wanted to tell you.

Thank you.