Georgia: Higher Education Becomes Easier for Minorities

[Harold Schiffman]

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.

Gayane, 23, from Akhalkalaki, a region of southern Georgia where most
of the population is Armenian, goes to university in neighboring
Armenia. She says that she would have liked to study in Georgia but is
unable because she does not know Georgian language. "I was not capable
of passing the entrance exam in Georgian, which was compulsory." she
said. The three largest ethnic groups represented in Georgia are
Georgians (83.8% of the population), Azeris (6.5%), and Armenians
(5.7%). Hence, discussions about minority issues revolve mainly around
Azeris and Armenians. Among policies directly impacting the
effectiveness of integrating national minorities, education is most
prominent.

Georgia's public defender, Sozar Subari stresses the importance of the
language for integration. "The most educated part of minority
societies continues their education in other countries where they can
study in their own language. Very often, such people stay in those
countries and never return. However, now, there is a requirement from
the government that minorities should learn Georgian language. This is
a very positive phenomenon," Subari said to The Georgian Times. Subari
adds that the poor knowledge of the language is the main reason why
ethnic minorities are under represented in governmental institutions.

A representative of the European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI),
Salome Mukhuzla agrees that the language barrier impedes integration
process, especially in regions where such problems are especially
noticeable. After the candidates for school directors from prominently
ethnic minority regions failed to pass the certification test required
for all school directors last year, ECMI has launched the project in
Akhalkalaki and Tsalka (regions populated mainly by ethnic Armenians),
in order to teach school teachers and directors the Georgian language.

 "We have seen that many candidates couldn't pass the certification
test and decided to help them in learning Georgian language. ECMI has
created the Javakheti Civil Forum, which incorporates a number of NGOs
and approximately 300 individuals. Our organization gives them grants
to carry out the trainings. Next certification test is planned in
spring this year, and we are hoping for better results," Mukhuzla
said.  A December 2006 report by the United Nations Association of
Georgia as part of its National Integration and Tolerance in Georgia
Program found that ethnic minorities felt increasingly estranged from
the rest of society because they lacked proficiency in the national
language. In the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, three quarters of those
polled said that they did not know Georgian.

Georgian is the only language of instruction in Georgian high schools,
with a few exceptions of Russian and English language programs. Before
the reforms, conducted by the MoES, each institution administered its
own exams and decided the program requirements. In 2005, the National
Assessment and Examinations Center, an agency subordinate to the MoES,
introduced the unified national examination for university admission
(UNE).  The UNE consists of three compulsory standardized tests:
Georgian language, general abilities, and a foreign language (Russian,
English, French or German).

 In its report "Education's Impact upon the Integration of National
Minorities" Transparency International (TI) Georgia says that
situation went from bad to worse after certain changes in the system.
"In the first year, there were two versions of the Georgian language
test: one for native speakers and one for non-native speakers. In the
second year of the exam, there was only one version of the test for
all," the report read. According to TI Georgia, the number of minority
students entering Georgian universities has declined since the
introduction of the UNE.  "Minority representatives argue that this
policy is discriminatory, since ethnic minorities (especially from the
regions) cannot possibly compete with students graduating from
Georgian language schools on equal footing," highlights the report.

During the Soviet era, Russian was a shared second language in
Georgia, thus there was no need for ethnic minorities to learn
Georgian. After the collapse of the empire, the Russian language has
lost its authority in Georgia and the necessity to learn national
language has greatly risen for minorities.  The Minister of Education
and Science Gia Nodia thinks a system of bilingual education can
provide the fastest solution. At a recent session the Parliamentary
Committee session, he stressed that the issue is a high priority for
him, because he worked for years on minority education policies. "I
think that we should initiate the system of bilingual education. As
for today, schools are not able to prepare full-fledged citizens of
Georgia. It's impossible to solve such problems rapidly, but if we
conduct the right policy, the situation will change gradually," the
Minister said.

Tia Vashakidze

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