Georgia: Higher Education Becomes Easier for Minorities

[Francis Hult]

Via lgpolicy...
 
 
Higher Education Becomes Easier for Minorities


The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) is translating the
Unified National Examination general aptitude tests for university
admission into Armenian and Azerbaijan languages for 2008, in order to
stop the outflow of young people from minority backgrounds to colleges
and universities abroad, and to make it easier for them to study in
their own country.  Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said that
poor knowledge of Georgian should not be an "insurmountable" obstacle
for anyone wishing to enter high education in his country.

 "It is very important that our citizens don't go and study in other
countries," he said. "I would like to stress that it is not they
[minorities] who should be held responsible for not knowing Georgian.
They are begging us to teach them the language. This is happening
because we [the authorities] are badly organized."  Although
translating the general aptitude tests increases the chances for
minority applicants to pass, the key challenge for them remain the
tests they must still take in the Georgian language.  The MoES
launched Unified National Examination Access Course Program, a project
enabling equal access to Georgian language education for minorities.
Entrants will be coached for exams in Georgian for 7 months, and
students will be granted a monthly allowance equal to 100 GEL. The
program budget is 240,000 GEL and will start in September 2008.

Full story:

http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=9466

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