Millennium Challenge Corporation backs education in Georgia

Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is ready to implement its second compact in Georgia with the intention of improving the quality of education in science, technology and engineering, says Kamran Khan, Vice President, Department of Compact Operations in an interview with the Voice of America’s Georgian bureau.

Khan believed a five-year, $140 million agreement would increase the earning potential of Georgians through strategic investments from the start of a student’s general education to graduation from technical training and advanced degree programs.

"The details of the compact include projects is being discussed that will launch this spring. But we have an idea to support the local Universities to issue joint American-Georgian Bachelor Degree in Engineering, Technology and Natural Sciences,” Khan said.

Georgia received the US bilateral assistance programs’ second compact last July, which aimed to build on recent policy reforms that Georgia had undertaken in its education sector and includes three projects:

• The Improving General Education Quality Project will focus on teacher training and school rehabilitation.
• The Industry-Led Skills and Workforce Development Project will target improvements in technical skills education.
• The STEM Higher Education Project will aim to modernize higher education in Engineering programs leading to Bachelor degrees.

Khan believed these investments would strengthen the capacity of Georgians to meet the needs of Georgia’s economy and create jobs.

For this, Khan believed with the cooperation of Georgian Government, MCC would issue vouchers for receiving professional-technical education.

"The student will himself decide which institute to enter. This is the best way to satisfy the market demands,” he said.

The compact builds on the success of Georgia’s first compact with MCC, completed in April 2011, which rehabilitated a major highway, improved energy and water security and supported agribusinesses. The investments supplemented Georgia’s efforts to promote stability, good governance and private enterprise development in the years following the 2004 Rose Revolution.