has the right to establish pre-school institutions or appropriate groups at Georgian institution with teaching children on mother tang of the minority.

There are four Russian and four Armenian kindergartens in Georgia, together with 61 Russian and 2 Armenian groups at Georgian pre-school institutions. Some groups are bilinguals where attendants teaching are performed on two languages: Russian-Azery (one group), Russian-Armenian (one group). Moreover, there exist three groups with the three instruction languages: Georgian, Russian and Azery.

In accordance to existing regulations, children in pre-school institutions are grouped by age as follows:

• Nursery school group I, 1-2 years old (15 children)
• Nursery school group II, 2-3 years old (15 children)
• Kindergarten youngest age group, 3-4 years old (20 children)
• Kindergarten middle age group, 4-5 years old (25 children)
• Kindergarten eldest age group, 5-6 years old (25 children)

Mixed age groups of children are also functioning in pre-school institutions.

There are season and twenty-four-hour pre-school institutions as well. Children at kindergartens stay 9, 10.5, 12 or 24 hours in a day (for 5 days weekly). 1233 (99.6%) of pre-school institutions work 5 days a week and 8 of them function 6 days a week.

Education at pre-school institutions is carried out independently, applying programs, general methodology and supplementary literature worked out and issued under the guidance of the Ministry of Education of Georgia. They are independently managing their financial resources and income. In framework of education programs, they collaborate with other education institutions as well as with international organisations. Main legislative documents of Georgia regulating pre-school education are: the "Law on Education", the "State Program of Reforms in Education", regulations and instructions issued by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health Protection, documents prescribing state standards of pre-school education, internal regulations and educational program.

The system of pre-school education in Georgia is ruled and co-ordinated by the department of pre-school education, boarding houses and children’s rights protection of the Ministry of Education as well as by local municipal or rural education departments.

Scientific methodological centre of the Ministry of Education together with National Teacher Retraining Institute provide scientific and methodological supervision of pre-school institutions.

There are two kinds of pre-school educational institutions in Georgia: public (state) and private. The supervisors of the public institutions are state or local authorities. They have the right to execute the special programs created by the administration of institutions. A private pre-school institution may be established by permission of a local authority.

Pre-school institutions may be established or closed by permission of local administration. The public pre-school institutions are fully or partly financed from the state budget . The state defines the amount of expenditure. Pre-school institutions have the right to find different financing sources, to create own funds and to manage them. The funds of private pre-school institutions consist of parents’ fees, different investments and other incomes.

The nursing and education fees per one child at public institutions are fixed and are in compliance with the state financial norms. Otherwise fees subject to agreement between parents and the institution.

For additional services provided at the public institution, parent should pay extra money. Services should be carried out according to tariffs and rates set in agreements.

Managerial advising bodies for finding financial support are established at pre-school institutions. The regulation of an institution regulates organisational structure and activity of the body.

Political and economical changes that took place in Georgia in last decade badly affected the pre-school educational system and put it in a very complicated situation. The number of pre-school institutions was considerably reduced (see Table 4).

During the mentioned period the number of pre-school institutions has been reduced mainly in 1992. Their number has decreased on 533. In 1994 the number of institutions has been decreased on 300 units. Institution in rural areas were affected in particular: out of 300 closed institutions 214 are in rural regions. For today, only 43% of pre-school institutions are functioning in countryside (see Table 4).

Financial problems are the main reason for decreasing of the number of institutions. Pre-school institutions in past were financed from the state budget, parents were partially paying for food only.

Till 1990 the cost in pre-school institution per one child was equal to 44 roubles monthly. Annual state expenditure on pre-school education was about 80 million roubles. Since 1990 the amount of money allotted for pre-school education from the state budget gradually decreased. Pre-school institutions today are on municipal security.

Decreasing of subsidies in some regions of the country, where the local authorities could not supply financing of kindergartens, has resulted in their liquidation or transition to self-financing.

The number of trade pre-school institutions was considerably reduced as well. Their number in 1990-1998 has decreased from 814 to 31 units. The cause of decreasing is liquidation of factories and large organisations and transition to self-financing. A part of the trade pre-school institutions was transferred to the state system of education.

One of the reasons of reduction of the number of institutions is the reduction of the number of attendants at pre-school institutions.

In comparison with 1990 the number of staff engaged in pre-school institutions has considerably decreased, in percentage from 41.1% (54,4% in urban areas and 28.7% in rural areas) to 29.3%, (see Table 4, Figure 7). The majority of children enrolled in pre-school institutions live in urban areas. In 1994-1996 the urban parameter has decreased from 54.4% to 19.4%. For a period of economic depression the parameter of employment in urban areas has decreased to 20% in 1994. The next years the number of attendants of pre-school institutions gradually grew and in 1998 the parameter has increased up to 29 % (Table 4)

In comparison with 1990 numbers of children visiting kindergartens has decreased on 125826 (62%). Large percent (74.4%) of reduction of the parameter of children attendance is related to urban kindergartens, for rural institutions this parameter has decreased on 25.5%. The fast rate of reduction of number of children in cities was noted in 1994. In this year the number of attendance reduced on 59.8% (119771), and hardly reached 20% for kindergartens.

Since 1994 the number of attendants gradually grew and in 1996 the parameter of children attendance in urban areas has increased up to 35.9 %, but in rural areas its decrease continued (Table 4).

The reduction of children's quota has changed the teaching load at pre-school institutions. If in 1990 the average number of children was 99 per a pre-school institution (for cities 102), in 1993 this parameter fell to 71. Since 1995 this number increased up to 85. Today it is 58 (62 for cities). In rural regions the average number of children per a pre-school institution fell to 52 in 1993-1994.

Decreasing of the number of attendants in Georgian kindergartens has the following reasons:

• Poor financing, deterioration of life conditions, nutrition problems, absence of heating and etc.;
• High percentage of unemployment among the parents;
• Low wage of the employed parents;
• Decreasing of birth rate.

The state of material and technical base of pre-school institutions is unsatisfactory. Due to the lack of finances current and capital repair of buildings has not been carried out. Electric equipment, water-supplying and sewerage systems are out of order. In 1997 170 (13.9%) of pre-school institutions needed emergency repair, 834 (68.1%) of them required capital repair, 41.1% had not a water-supplying system, 52.9% had no isolation ward. Because of this infringement of sanitary and hygienic norms, the level of disease among children had increased.

Out of 124323 places designed for children in pre-school institutions, 107611 are in buildings constructed according to the typical projects. Average area per pupil was equal to 13 m² in 1995. Out of 1241 pre-school institutions 289 have every facilities, 769 have water-supplying system, 183 have central heating, and 775 of them have sewerage system.

Extraordinary situation is now in some regions, especially at locations where military operations took place during the civil war. For example in Samegrelo-Svaneti highlands about 86% of kindergartens requires capital repair, 20% of buildings are in emergency state. In Guria the figure is about 95%, in Shida Kartli this number reaches 98%, etc. In emergency state are 19% of buildings in Shida Kartli, in Samtskhe-Javakheti this figure is equal to 18% and for Tbilisi it is 21% (Table 7, Figures 8).

One can easily see from Figure 11 that technical condition of buildings significantly deteriorated in 1995-1996.

For the last years number of buildings requiring the capital repair increased from 35% to 68 % and today the number of such institutions constitutes 75 %. Percentage for rural and urban areas is constant for years. Since 1990 the capital repair has not been conducted at pre-school institutions. Due to financial problems the number of emergency buildings in 1995 was equal to 8%. Since 1996 their number has increased to 15% (Table 7, Figure 8).

As a result of above mentioned processes a number of pre-school institutions were closed. The reason of closing of pre-school institutions today is also the lack of means. Dynamics of decreasing of the number of pre-school institutions is presented in Table 4.

The part of pre-school buildings was rented by different commercial structures, the most of them were occupied by displaced persons, and others are not functioning.

Nutrition supply of pre-school institutions has significantly worsened recently. As it was mentioned above, before 1990 parents paid partially for food. Supply of the institutions was centralised. Daily overall per a child is 1.08 Lari or 25.92 Lari monthly. Parents have to pay 0.45 Lari monthly to keep children at pre-school institution.

The amount of fee depends on pre-school institution, which set the amount taking into account particular conditions and financial state of child parents. Donated money is spent on nutrition and different household expenses.