70 school graduates from the occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region will go through preparations course for university admissions at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The pilot program will run from April 17 through July 19.
Rector of TSU, George Sharvashidze; Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Natia Zedgenidze; State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili; Minister of Education and Culture of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Manana Kvachakhia, Head of the Education Service of the South Ossetian Administration, Soso Tsotniashvili, students, professors, administrative staff attended the presentation held at TSU on April 17.
“A very important project is being launched. The preparations program will help school graduates get ready for university admission, select a profession and then study at any accredited higher educational institution in Georgia. More than one half of registered school graduates will go through the program at TSU; part of them will live at the Lisi Dormitory, which will provide them with all conditions necessary for living and learning,” Rector Sharvashidze said.
The program will be fully funded and participants will be provided with housing and a monthly stipend. Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Natia Zedgenidze noted that “the program aims at promoting personal and professional development of school graduates, their integration into the society, raising their self-awareness.”
State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili said that this program is yet another tangible step towards Georgia’s better future: “The program will, on the one hand, ease access to education for those young people, who are deprived of the right to receive education in their native language in the occupied regions, and on the other, it will ease their enrollment at universities. The participants of the program will be provided with a monthly stipend at GEL 150.”
70 out of 142 registered program participants will be based at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The majority of participants – 68 are from Gali district of Abkhazia, and the remaining two are from Akhalgori district of Tskhinvali Region. 27 of those persons, who were registered at TSU, will live at the Lisi Student Dormitory.
“I graduated from school in 2015 and continued my studies at the college. Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to continue my studies at a higher educational institution. The program will help me achieve my goal,” says a program participant from Georgia’s occupied region of Abkhazia.
A three-month intensive program for aspiring students from the occupied regions will be provided by the TSU Center for Lifelong Learning.
“70 participants will go through a three-month course; all of them will be prepared in the Georgian language, and additionally in a subject that is required by the department they wish to enroll. Moreover, we will offer them interesting meetings with professors, students, as well as sport and cultural events,” Head of the TSU Center for Lifelong Learning, Gia Mamulashvili said.
After completing the program, all participants will have to pass two exams; one in the Georgian language (that is compulsory for all participants) and the other in a subject that is required by the department they wish to enroll.
The new university preparations program for school graduates from Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions is being implemented at Tbilisi State University and Shota Meskhia Zugdidi State University, upon initiative of the Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality and with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.
