BREAKING: Poor Education - An Unrecognized Threat

For many, primary school is a rite of passage, with their university education being the final accomplishment. But our educational systems have moved far from their stated purpose of teaching children to become citizens and future leaders. Instead, these once-hallowed institutions have been politicized and polluted by outside influence to the point they are barely recognizable today.

While this problem is not unique to Georgia or the Greater Caucasus Region, it nonetheless uniquely impacts us. And through us, the world at large. As such, it threatens national, regional, and global security. However, those trained to educate or dictate policy are rarely well-versed in threat identification or mitigation. They often unintentionally create problems that later spiral out of control. Therefore, it falls to us in the security community to insist these concerns are brought to light and addressed before the damage they cause is irreversible.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in partnership with the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), recently conducted a study on the state of education in Georgia. The results were alarming, raising concerns within the greater intelligence community about the future of Georgia and the Greater Caucasus Region.

In summary, Georgia ranked almost last in most educational criteria against a basket of 79 OECD members and partners. Based on this, our education system appears far behind those of our intended partner nations. But how will we establish ourselves as the regional leaders we aspire to be? Moreover, what will our country be capable of contributing to a world of better-educated and more learned peers?

The security of Georgia is at risk, and only some people are taking meaningful steps to remedy the problems presented by the failures of our education system. While nations calculate the measure of national security over decades and generations, today's failures define tomorrow's catastrophe. Although Georgia is not the only nation with an education system failing on the world stage, it is one of the few with strong and meaningful partnerships that could help correct these deficiencies.

The only question is whether today's nation will educate its children to meet tomorrow's threats.

Source: UNICEF