Education should be the top priority and this is the only right vision to ensure sustainable development of Georgia, - Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze told Imedi TV.

According to the Prime Minister, Georgia's centuries-old history is fight for freedom, preservation of identity and building of a strong Georgian state.

"We face two main challenges - poverty and occupation that does not allow us to realize our historic mission. Education is the shortest way to freedom and the shortest way from poverty to freedom. This is not just a reform, it is a national idea and the most bold national project since the day of our independence, which should ensure Georgia to be added to the list of the countries with developed economies. The formula for the success of leading economies of the world is that the education sector is the main driving force. In the 21st century, if you do not spend 10-11% of you GDP on the education it will be difficult to compete. Therefore, our goal was the government’s spending on economy to be 6% and in this case, a private sector will also be motivated to invest and as a result of it, education will become a dominant sector in economy.

This year, we allocated GEL1.6 billion and this is a significant increase compared to 2012, when we the budget of education was GEL 600 million. Next year, we will allocate GEL 2 billion, in 2021 - 2,5 billion, and in 2022 - 3.4 billion, which is a quarter of our budget, "the Prime Minister said.

The Head of the Government noted that the "Equality Act" should oblige all governments to allocate at least a quarter of the budget for education and future generations over the next decade.

"Education is a long-term reform, so we should not allow to make large-scale investments during the next 5-6 years and then to slow down it. This is unacceptable. Consequently, this should be strengthened at the legislative level and in the nearest future we will submit a relevant initiative to the Parliament, "said Mamuka Bakhtadze.