The price of private schools is increasing and in the 2022/2023 academic year it was GEL 6,500 on average, - according to the report published by TBC Capital.
According to the document, a 5-10% increase in prices is expected in the next year as well.
An analysis of population incomes showed that the average Georgian family in 2023 spends about 37% of its income on private school fees. In the last 5 years, this indicator was the highest in 2020-pandemic year, which is explained by reduced incomes. Access to private schools has increasing in the last two years. Since tuition fees have not decreased, increased access to private schools is explained by increased average incomes.
In the 2022/2023 academic year, 2,086 public and 216 private schools were operating in Georgia. The number of public schools is almost unchanged, while the number of private schools has been decreasing in recent years. With the challenges created by the pandemic, high fixed costs and high competition, some private schools have left the market or merged with other schools, leading to a decrease in the number of private schools overall. From 2018 to 2021, the share of private schools in the total number of schools was stable at 10%, and in 2022 it decreased to 9%.
Funding of general education is more than half of the total budget of the Ministry of Education and Science, and its share in the total budget is increasing, reaching 1.3bln GEL in 2023, which is 14% higher than the previous year.
