MINELRES: Caucasus Reporting Service No. 405: Georgia's Minorities Face University Barrier

[minelres@lists.microlink.lv]

Original sender: Institute for War & Peace Reporting <editor@iwpr.net>


WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 405, August 9, 2007

CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE AUGUST 9

CHECHEN MASSACRE SURVIVORS SEE JUSTICE Villagers welcome "unprecedented"
verdict from European Court of Human Rights. By Asya Umarova in Novye
Aldy, Grozny 

BREAD PRICE DISCONTENT IN AZERBAIJAN Critics say the government is not
doing enough to protect people from the rising cost of a basic
essential. By Boyukaga Agayev in Baku

GEORGIA'S MINORITIES FACE UNIVERSITY BARRIER Most ethnic Armenians going
on to higher education end up studying in other countries. By Maia
Ivelashvili in Akhalkalaki and Gayane Mkrtchian in Yerevan

**** IWPR RESOURCES
******************************************************************

SAHAR JOURNALISTS' ASSISTANCE FUND: IWPR is establishing a fund, in
honour of Sahar al-Haideri, to support journalist participants in its
training and reporting programmes around the world.  The Sahar
Journalists' Assistance Fund will be used to support local journalists
in cases of exile or disability, or to assist their families in case of
death in service. To find out more or donate please go to:
http://www.iwpr.net/sahar.html 

PANORAMA NEWSPAPER available in pdf at:
http://www.iwpr.net/panorama.html 

**** www.iwpr.net
********************************************************************

CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/crs/rss.xml 

RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range
of free electronic publications at:
http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p 

GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For
more information about how you can support IWPR go to:
http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html 

**** www.iwpr.net
********************************************************************

.................................

GEORGIA'S MINORITIES FACE UNIVERSITY BARRIER

Most ethnic Armenians going on to higher education end up studying in
other countries. 

By Maia Ivelashvili in Akhalkalaki and Gayane Mkrtchian in Yerevan

Hasmik Krmajian, 21, comes from Akhalkalaki, an impoverished region of
southern Georgia where most of the population is Armenian. Yet she goes
to university not in Georgia but in neighbouring Armenia.

Hasmik, who has spent the last four years studying at Yerevan's teacher
training university, said she would have liked to study back in Georgia
but was unable to do so because she did not know the Georgian language. 

"I was unable to pass the entrance exam in Georgian, which was
compulsory," she said. "Besides, I felt there was obvious discrimination
against Armenian candidates."

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has pledged to try to stem 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. That is likely to prove difficult, given that a new
national entrance exam requires a knowledge of Georgian, in which ethnic
minorities are not generally fluent. 

There are around 250,000 ethnic Armenians in Georgia, accounting for
about five per cent of the population. Most live in the mountainous
region of Javakheti - or Javakhk, as the Armenians call it. 

The country has a slightly larger number of Azerbaijanis - estimated at
around 280,000 - and they encounter similar problems with access to
higher education.

A December 2006 report by the United Nations Association of Georgia as
part of its National Integration and Tolerance in Georgia Programme
found that ethnic minorities felt increasingly estranged from the rest
of society because they lacked facility in the national language. In the
Samtskhe-Javakheti region, three quarters of those polled said that they
did not know Georgian.

In Soviet times, this was not an issue because Russian was commonly
accepted as the lingua franca, and fluency in Georgian was not
compulsory for university entrants. 

Following independence in 1991, the Georgian authorities stressed the
importance of the language but put few resources into teaching it to the
minorities.

As a result of recent education reforms, all applicants for higher
education courses have to take three entrance exams covering general
knowledge and ability, Georgian plus a foreign language. 

The result is that every summer, thousands of young Armenians apply to
universities in Armenia, or less frequently Russia. 

In Javakheti itself, educational opportunities are getting more limited.
This year, the Akhalkalaki branch of Tbilisi State University was
abolished, and the number of people admitted to the university's branch
in the region's other main town, Akhaltsikhe, was greatly reduced.

Grigory Minasian, chairman of the Armenian Youth Centre, said that
because of these changes, the number of Armenians attending university
in Georgia had gone down "significantly", and he feared many young
people from the community would now miss out on higher education
altogether. 

The government has launched programmes worth two million laris, around
1.2 million US dollars, to provide Georgian-language tuition for
would-be students from ethnic minorities.

President Saakashvili said 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 Georgia.
They are begging us to teach them the language. This is happening
because we [the authorities] are badly organised."

Saakashvili has ordered a "preparation centre" to start operating in
Tbilisi from September, to teach citizens of Armenian and Azerbaijani
ethnicity Georgian and coach them for the new national exams.  

Levan Chikvinidze, who works for Georgia's National Examination Centre,
confirmed that the number of non-Georgian students in higher education
had declined over the past few years, but said that this reflected a
general fall in numbers. 

"Competition is high, and both Armenians and Georgians need to be able
to show their potential equally," Chikvinidze told IWPR. "There is one
solution - those who are unable to enter university because of the
language problem should come to Tbilisi in advance. About 100 places
have been reserved for them at preliminary courses there. Grants will be
allocated to those who are admitted. The main thing for them is to get
admitted, and the government will fund their education".

Mikhail Khachatrian, a young Armenian from Akhalkalaki who unusually
speaks fluent Georgian, wants to study law at the Akhaltsikhe branch of
Tbilisi university.

He said the new entrance exams were not difficult and were well within
the capabilities of many of his fellow-Armenians. But he was critical of
state teaching of Georgian, saying he learned the language through
social contacts, not formal courses. 

"We are taught very badly at school," said Khachatrian. "You can't learn
Georgian there."

In the mean time, some 1,500 ethnic Armenian students from Georgia, 95
per cent of them from Javakheti, are currently attending universities in
Armenia. The most popular destination is the teacher training university
in Yerevan. The students often live with relatives or share rented
apartments. 

Worryingly for Georgia, few of the students return to Javakheti after
they graduate.

Vahram Sarksian, who is from Javakheti, graduated in geography from
Yerevan State University and is now studying at the Public
Administration Academy there. He said the opportunities at home were
very limited for people like him. 

"Not many of those who receive education here go back to Javakhk," he
said. "Others find jobs here and remain in Armenia. Some just go to a
third country - Russia."

Norair Andreyan, an expert at Armenia's education ministry, said the
Georgian authorities were driving their young people away.

"The Georgian policy is to spread everything that is Georgian," he said.
"But Javakhk has its own aims - to preserve its deep-rooted Armenian
culture. If things continue in this way, the very existence of Armenians
there will be difficult."

In both countries, there is widespread agreement that Georgia should
make it a priority to promote higher education in the poor and isolated
Javakheti region. But how this should happen is disputed. 

Georgian deputy education minister Bella Tsipuria conceded that the
Georgian language teaching system was not working and said that Georgia
had studied the experience of Latvia and Moldova to employ new teaching
methods.

"Experts in Georgian and in how to teach a second language at school
have been selected," Tsipuria told IWPR. "Trainers go to Akhalkalaki and
teach new methods to local teachers, both Georgian and Armenian. We
believe that teachers can improve their teaching if they are motivated
and have good textbooks."

Yerevan-based ethnographer Hranush Kharatian argued that universities in
Armenia should be allowed to open branches in Javakheti. 

"If young people can get an education in Javakhk itself, we will be able
to solve several problems at once - providing high quality Armenian
education for students and keeping them here," she said. "It is an issue
of strategic importance." 

Mikhail Khachatrian, one of the few university applicants currently
hoping to study in Javakheti, says he is confident that he will get the
marks he needs to pass the Georgian national exam. 

But he said his optimism was mixed with sadness, as many of his friends
are leaving home and heading off to study in Armenia.

Maia Ivelashvili is a correspondent with Southern Gates newspaper in
Akhaltsikhe, Georgia. Gayane Mkrtchian is a correspondent with
Armenianow.com in Yerevan, Armenia. Both are members of IWPR's EU-funded
Cross Caucasus Journalism Network project.

**** www.iwpr.net
********************************************************************

CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE provides the international community with a
unique insiders' perspective on events in the North and South Caucasus.
Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and
analysis from across the region every week.

The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those of
the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or
of IWPR.

The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus programme, which supports
local media development while encouraging better local and international
understanding of the region.

IWPR's Caucasus programme is supported by the British government, the
Norwegian government, the European Commission and the Finnish
government. The service is currently available online in English and in
Russian. 

CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE: Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing
Editor: Yigal Chazan; Caucasus Editor: Tom de Waal; Senior Editor: John
MacLeod; Associate Editors: Sofo Bukia in Tbilisi, Shahin Rzayev in
Baku, Seda Muradian in Yerevan, Valery Dzutsev in Vladikavkaz and Timur
Aliev in Nazran.

IWPR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT: Executive Director: Anthony
Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Chief Programme
Officer: Mike Day

**** www.iwpr.net
********************************************************************

IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through
the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive
hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious
initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting
peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible
local media a voice.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
48 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030  Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050

For further details on this project and other information services and
media programmes, go to: www.iwpr.net 

ISSN: 1477-7959 Copyright (c) 2007 The Institute for War & Peace
Reporting 

**** www.iwpr.net
********************************************************************

---------------------------------------------
This message was sent using Endymion MailMan.
http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ http://www.microlink.com/