The Georgian Education Ministry on Wednesday announced that English has become the main foreign language for examination with a choice rate of 73 percent of test takers.

Officials of the ministry told local media that 73 percent of the country's school leavers had chosen English as their foreign language test for the 2012 national examinations.

Those who chose Russian as their foreign language test accounted for 17 percent, followed by German with 7 percent and French with 3 percent.

Officials attributed the high percentage of English testers to the country's English-based "Teach and Learn With Georgia" program which officially started on Jan. 1, 2011.

Currently, thousands of English speakers from the countries such as Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and other countries around the world have arrived in the South Caucasus country to popularize English speaking and teaching in the regions.

These English-speaking foreigners have also helped with the local English teachers of the schools outside the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi.

Two years ago, the rate of school leavers who chose English as their foreign language test accounted for 45 percent, just as much as those who chose Russian as their school-leaving foreign language test.

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