On 13 March 2014, Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, held a meeting with students of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. After delivering a speech the PM took questions from the audience. One of the questions put forward by the students concerned the problems related to the quality of education in regional secondary schools of Georgia. Responding to the question, the Prime Minister asserted that the Government is developing educational programmes which will be made available to everyone. Gharibashvili further clarified that Georgia was granted a total of 140 million in the framework of the Millennium Challenge Fund which would be employed for the development of the education field; specifically, for the strengthening of higher educational establishments and technical schools of Georgia, including those operating in the regions of the country. The PM also noted: “If I am not mistaken, according to the surveys published in 2010, Georgia ranked last in Europe by the level of education. This is a truly shameful result for us.”

FactCheck

inquired about the said survey in which Georgia allegedly came last by the level of education among European countries and studied the document.

In his statement Irakli Gharibashvili was referring to the survey which was published in 2011 by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), entitled PISA (

Programme for International Student Assessment). PISA is an international comparative survey of the knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy for 15-year-olds.

As clarified in the research, PISA seeks to measure how well young adults have acquired the knowledge and skills that are required to function as successful members of society. The survey also serves as a certain guide to the governments of the participating countries aiding them to craft the policies which will improve the existing educational outcomes making the system more efficient. PISA is a regular, ongoing series of assessments that are administered in participating countries every three years.

The reporting of the findings from PISA focuses on issues such as: How well prepared are young adults to meet the challenges of the future? Can they analyse, reason and communicate their ideas effectively? What skills do they possess that will facilitate their capacity to adapt to rapid societal change? How equitable is the provision of education within a country or across countries?, and so forth.

Originally, in 2009, 64 countries participated in the PISA survey whereas later, a further ten states joined in; among those, including Georgia as well. Unlike the original 64, in those ten countries the survey was conducted in 2010, instead of 2009, and its findings were published in the form of a final report in 2011.

The PISA survey involved testing just over 46,000 students across the ten participant countries. Georgia’s results in the testing designed to assess the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds are discussed in more detail below.

• Reading literacy, which assesses an individual’s capacity to understand, use, reflect upon and engage with written texts, was measured by 374 points in Georgia, placing the country in the eighth position from the end, among the 74 surveyed countries, and in one category with such countries as Qatar, Peru and Panama. In Georgia, only 38% of students are estimated to have a proficiency in reading literacy that is at or above the baseline. Accordingly, the majority of Georgian students does not satisfy the basic requirements.
• In terms of mathematical literacy, Georgia’s students attained a mean score of 379 ranking the country tenth from the end among the 74 participating countries. This mean score is slightly above the indicators observed in Albania, Tunisia, Indonesia, Qatar, Peru, Panama and several others. In line with the research, only 31% of students are proficient in mathematics at least to the baseline level. It is of note that in Georgia, there was no statistically significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in mathematical literacy.
• On the scientific literacy scale, Georgian students were given a mean score of 373 which places the country in the fifth position from the end. In agreement with the findings, 34% of students are proficient in science at least to the baseline level. There was a statistically significant gender difference of 19 score points in scientific literacy, favouring girls.

A clearer illustration of the PISA survey’s assessment of the reading, mathematical and scientific literacy of Georgian 15-year-olds is presented in the graph below.

Discussing the outcomes of the survey Irakli Gharibashvili focused upon the results of the European countries whose scores are given in the table below.

Survey Outcomes in Europe
#	Country	Scientific Literacy	Reading Literacy	Mathematical Literacy
1	Finland	554	536	541
2	Estonia	528	501	512
3	The Netherlands	522	508	526
4	Germany	520	497	513
5	Liechtenstein	520	499	536
6	Switzerland	517	501	534
7	Great Britain	514	494	492
8	Slovenia	512	483	501
9	Poland	508	500	495
10	Ireland	508	496	487
11	Belgium	507	506	515
12	Hungary	503	494	490
13	Norway	500	503	498
14	The Czech Republic	500	478	493
15	Denmark	499	495	503
16	France	498	496	497
17	Sweden	495	497	494
18	Latvia	494	468	482
19	Austria	494	470	496
20	Portugal	493	489	487
21	Lithuania	491	484	477
22	Slovakia	490	477	497
23	Italy	489	486	483
24	Spain	488	481	483
25	Luxembourg	484	472	489
26	Russia	478	459	468
27	Croatia	486	476	460
28	Greece	470	484	466
29	Malta	461	442	463
30	Serbia	443	442	442
31	Bulgaria	439	429	428
32	Romania	428	424	427
33	Moldova	413	388	397
34	Montenegro	401	408	403
35	Albania	391	485	377
36	Azerbaijan	373	362	431
37	Georgia	373	374	379

As can be gathered from the table, in line with the survey results, Georgia’s score in reading literacy surpasses only that of Azerbaijan by 12 points. Judging by the assessed mathematical literacy, Georgian youth outstrips solely Albania by two points.

Conclusion

Our analysis of the subject revealed that the survey which Irakli Gharibashvili discussed during his meeting with the students was published in 2011. The survey was conducted in 74 countries and sought to assess the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds. Over the course of the research, the skills of these youngsters were assessed in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. Results show that 62% of Georgian youth do not possess the baseline level of reading literacy, 66% are struggling with scientific skills and 69% – with mathematical skills. Considering these indicators, Georgia occupies one of the lowermost positions among the 74 participating countries.

As for the indicators of European countries in particular, which was emphasised in the statement of the PM, Georgia indeed ranks last by the reading literacy of 15-year-olds. Based upon the mathematical skills Georgia outruns Azerbaijan only by 12 points while in scientific skills Georgia surpasses Albania by two points thereby having the worst final result in Europe.

Therefore, FactCheck concludes that the Prime Minister’s statement: “If I am not mistaken, according to the surveys published in 2010, Georgia ranked last in Europe by the level of education,” is TRUE.

Originally published in The Financial, issue N. 14(394)