“The technical track at the Technical University has turned into a kind of ghetto. There are fields where not a single engineer exists in the country. If someone does not want this to be corrected, that is wrong - we are ready to debate this as well,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists.

According to him, technical disciplines should not be marginalized; on the contrary, everything must be done to strengthen technical fields.

Kobakhidze stated that in the process of merging Tbilisi State University (TSU) and the Georgian Technical University (GTU), special attention will be paid to technical disciplines, which will be formed into a separate school with a high degree of autonomy.

“Everyone can see that the education system is not just in a difficult condition, but in an extremely difficult one. We initiated a reform, identified seven problems, and based on this defined seven responses. Can you recall anyone presenting concrete proposals or constructive messages regarding any of these issues? There was nothing of the sort. There were only general, harsh statements without any specifics.

We are ready for discussion here as well. If anyone has arguments about what should or should not be done - whether infrastructure should be improved, whether resource optimization is necessary, whether our already scarce human resources should be used as efficiently as possible - we can discuss all of this. Do we have textbooks in core subjects? Let’s discuss that too.

When people talk about brands and so on, what is the main issue? So many years have passed since the restoration of independence. Even before that, the education system functioned, and to this day, if we take the field of law as an example, in more than half of the core subjects we still do not have high-standard textbooks. Shouldn’t this be fixed? If someone believes it shouldn’t be, let’s debate that too. I am ready to talk to opponents about these issues.

The problems facing the education system and specific universities are so evident that I don’t know what else to say. I believe our arguments here are very strong. On the other side, there are empty, harsh statements without any detail or substance.

In reality, there is no merging of technical and humanities disciplines. Even within the Georgian Technical University itself, technical fields account for less than half of all programs. Less than half of students at the Georgian Technical University study technical disciplines. So what happened? Since the 1990s, when these problems emerged, the technical track within its own university turned into a kind of ghetto. This is today’s reality. If someone does not want this corrected, that is wrong.

We believe technical fields deserve special attention. Today there are enormous problems. If you look at graduation numbers, for example in construction, engineering, and similar fields, only 300-400-500 students graduate per year. There are disciplines where not a single engineer exists in the country. Both the public and private sectors face enormous challenges, yet we are told this should not be fixed. Of course, this must be corrected.

Technical fields should not be suppressed; on the contrary, everything must be done to strengthen them. Today, the share of students in technical disciplines is around 10%. In developed countries, this share is roughly one-third. This must change. If technical fields remain a ghetto within the Georgian Technical University, nothing will improve. That is why, within the framework of the merger, we plan to give special, distinct attention to technical disciplines, establish them as a separate school with a high degree of autonomy. This will ensure that we produce far more specialists and far more highly qualified professionals in technical fields than we have over all these years.

This requires a well-thought-out reform. We have thought it through, while the opposition speaks without arguments. We need to discuss everything with arguments,” Kobakhidze stated.

In addition, he commented on the election of Nino Doborjginidze as rector of Ilia State University, saying that “the politicization of universities was the hallmark of the previous government.”

According to him, the government’s approach is that no university should be politicized.

“The politicization of universities was the trademark of our predecessors, the former government. Every single university was politicized. They even entered the private sector. They established their own private universities; some universities were sold for one lari and later transformed into private institutions. The politicization of universities is the trademark of our opponents. No university should be politicized. This is our approach, and it must be fully implemented,” Kobakhidze said.