Avtandil Abdushelishvili, the head of the Association of School Administrators of Georgia and the director of "Shavnabada" gymnasium declares, that tuition in private schools will become more expensive on average by 15-18% between 2024-2025. As Avtandil Abdushelishvili said on the air of "Business Morning", the reason for the increase is the government's decision, according to which, from July 1, the salary of public school teachers will increase by GEL 500.
The head of a private school explains that if the salaries of teachers employed in private schools are not increased according to the same principle, the rate of attrition in public schools will increase.
"In private schools, fees have always increased by an average of 10% from y-o-y, but this year, the increase in salaries for teachers in public schools will be one of the prerequisites for private schools to review their budgets again and increase tuition fees by more. I do not rule out that this increase will be in the range of 15-18%.
Increasing teachers' salaries is an important and right step, but on the other hand, it is a challenge for private schools. An increase of GEL 500 is quite a big increase. Our school has 100 teachers, so we are talking about an annual increase of GEL 600,000. With a 10-12% increase, we simply cannot maintain quality education," said Abduselishvili.
According to him, 6,079 teachers are working in private schools at this stage. Many of them want to work at public schools due to high salaries and less load.
Late in 2023, Georgian Education Minister, Giorgi Amilakhvari, announced during a briefing at the government administration, that teachers' salaries will increase from 2024.
The minister emphasized the government’s commitment to improving the salary policy for teachers, stating that there has already been an increase of about 200% in teachers’ salaries under the current administration.
A new salary formula is being developed, and the minister assured that the new policy would result in substantial salary increases for all teachers.
