NISPAcee 14 th Annual Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia

NISPAcee 14 th Annual Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION EDUCATION IN GEORGIA AND MULTIETHNIC INVOLVEMENT Author: Dea Chkhaidze 1, Foundation for Development of Human Resources, Georgia 2006 1 MA of Social Psychology; Executive director of Foundation for Development of Human Resources, Tbilisi, Georgia 1

Table of Contents Abstract...3 Introduction...4 Political state...4 Ethnic diversity in Georgia...5 Legal bases...6 Main ethnic minority issues identified in Georgia...7 Cases: PA education institutions in Georgia...8 General overview...8 Georgian Technical University: cathedra of employee of Public Service...9 Zurab Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA (Tbilisi)...9 Zurab Zhvania School of PA (Kutaisi)...10 Findings: why ethnic concept is undeveloped in PA education...10 Good practice: case of NGO involvement...11 Conclusions and implications...11 2

Abstract The research theme covers the multiethnic inclusion issue in PA education system of Georgia. The subject is quite new for our country and there is small experience of PA education in general and it is quite undeveloped. The situation is much more pessimistic regarding the issue of ethnic minority s inclusion into the PA structure. Though, country is ethnically diverse, there are several minority-populated regions and multiethnic concept of education is very important for policy-making in Georgia and there is a significant need of multiethnic concept of education. Several PA education high schools have been established in Georgia for last 10 years and the faculties of PA education function in several universities. This paper gives the brief description of cases of the learning system of these institutions, their curricula and inclusion of ethnic issue-related topics into the schools agenda. It is analyzed the legislative bases of ethnic minorities rights, Georgian constitution and other national and international documents that are signed by the Georgian government concerning ethnic issues. The result of the analyzing is not optimistic and there are lots of problems and gaps between legislation and real situation. As the ethnic issues are not considered in the curricula of PA education of high and specialized schools, the alternative ways of diversity inclusion will be discussed in the frame of NGO, Georgian public and some international institutions activities for deep study and inclusion of the subject into curricula of high educational institutions. As the PA education is one of the most privileged challenges now in Georgia and is one of the most painful issues, it is interesting to look through the employment statistics of the graduate students in Public Administration bodies, that is tried in frame of the research. In the end of the research the attempt to find out the ways of involvement of multiethnic issue into the curricula of the PA education institutions will be discussed. Also some conclusions together with the implications are developed in the end of the research aiming initiation of the dialogue process between the stakeholders for development and inclusion of the subject into the curricula of existing PA education institutions. 3

Introduction Political state After the collapse of Soviet Union Georgia began the new stage of its development. Georgia in the 90s went through the civil war and two armed conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia which were the autonomous republics in borders of Georgian Soviet Republic. The state doesn t control de facto these territories at the moment. On the background of two frozen conflicts in 2004 the Rose Revolution broke the life of the country. Although it didn t provoke bloodshed, the post revolutionary Georgia still faces problems and difficulties in main areas of the state, political and civil life. The unemployment rises on the background of inflation; constant changes of staff in state bodies and poor HR policy, lack of human recourses and several attacks on the NGO sector become, together with others, the signs of difficulties in the government. Severe social and economical conditions of the population especially in regions of Georgia, embargo from side of Russia and losing the main market of Georgian products, lack of legislative bases for the development of economic structures and investment, and what is especially important after the revolution, more strict and centralized politics instead of decentralization and liberal vision are very obvious now in Georgia. But the situation can be viewed from different perspectives. As some experts say, the situation in Georgia is natural for post-revolutionary country in transition period after the changing of the regime. Meanwhile it is worth to note that all the minimum standards of democracy are more or less obtained in Georgia, e.g. free elections, universal suffrage, changing of governments and respect of civil rights 2. On the background of markers of poorly developed democracy Georgia tries to reach highly developed one and at the moment both features are noticeable as it is natural to the transition period. In the respect of the dualistic development of the system the democratic standards should be more featured in everyday life and thus give the stage to the real movement towards western institutions and systems, e.g. EU, NATO, UN and others, which is declared as the state priority. The biggest challenge in this respect is the prevention of conflicts in Georgia. In addition to other issues the country faces, the ethnic issues is one of the most important as two ethno-political conflicts that reflected in breakup of the country, can also be extended in other regions of Georgia. The background is very fertile in this moment for latent ethnic tensions become manifested. In addition to the potentially conflicting situation, the reason for working on the ethnic issue is linked to the desire of western integration of the country. Democratic world demands the international standards operating in all included regions of EU and other regional unions, otherwise the new members or member applicants of the respective regional organizations became threatening to democracy. Georgia seeks the ways of inclusion of international standards into its development and some steps like modern armament and well-trained army, new police system Patrol, reforms in education and other fields in order to reframe the old systems are moving very quickly. There are several steps taken towards ethnic issue as well. In 2005 the post-revolutionary parliament ratified the Framework Convention on Protection of he Rights of National Minorities; the executive governmental bodies such as the ministry of State Integration and the Ministry of Conflict Management were established; the government declared as its priority development of the regions (including those minority populated); the school of Public Administration for ethnic minorities and regions representatives was opened. But still there is much to do and in the first place make the changes vital, rise sensitivity towards the issues, make analyses, aware the traits of the issue and bring it to the more or less natural process and not to make it coerce and aggressive for the mentality of population. The paper will cover mainly the issues of the two ethnic minorities Armenians and Azeri, which represent the biggest minority groups in Georgia. The political subject of lobbing from the side of ethnic Armenians living in Samtskhe-Javakheti is the dismissal of the Russian military base, which is situated in Akhalkalaki, administrative center of Armenian-populated region. The Russian military bases were established in several places in Georgia, mainly on the border with Turkey. The issue of leaving of the Russian soldiers became the milestone of Georgian State identity for final separation from Russian influence. But Armenian minorities have another interest in the military base. During years Armenians consider the Russian base as the basis of their security from Turkey which is neighboring to Javakheti. Of course, this is the psychological point and no political treating is expected between Georgia and Turkey, but still the subject is very important for Armenian population. There were several meetings in Akhalkalaki after ratification of the agreement between Georgian and Russian states about dismissal of the base. The separatist forces in Javakheti that are ruled and financed from external political and state forces use the psychological concept of security and declare the desire of autonomy and the theme of bases is very good source of their demands. Stemming from the situation now the tension is visible in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. There is a very good ground for renewal of the old ethnic traumas and create the manifest conflict despite the small amount of 2 Smooha, S., the model of Ethnic Democracy ; in The Fate of Ethnic Democracy in Post-Communist Europe, 2005 4

the separatist-interested persons. The Georgian State has to be very conscious and wise to overcome the potentially conflicting situation in the region. In general, most of ethnic minorities in Georgia do not have sufficient leadership and featured organization, as much as they are not so large as Armenian and Azeri minority and don t demand their rights actively. Although almost every ethnic group have the non-governmental organizations directed on the cultural and social aims. The most significant position in Georgia has the two biggest ethnic minority groups: Armenians and Azeri. Armenian ethnic minority is historically more active in demanding their rights and even autonomy and they eventually have the more winning position now than Azeri. They have more representatives in central and local government; have ease border procedures with Armenia and other benefits. As about the Azeri population, there were several riots in 90s just after the collapse of Soviet Union, demanding the autonomy for Kvemo Kartli region, where they are densely situated. The nationalistic approach and politics was very active that time in Georgia according to the president Gamsakhudia s regime. But after changing Gamsakhurdia s government and now Azeri population is not politically active. It doesn t mean that they are satisfied with the situation they live in, but rather, as some of the Azeri leaders argue, they are frighten of being suppressed by the Georgian government and of armed conflict and exile or becoming more isolated from the other parts of the country, which means political, economical, social detachment. At the moment Azeri population have very small representation even on the local level and almost non in the central governmental structures, their main demand is related to the social subjects, such as the justly sharing of land and etc. Isolation of the minorities and rather more isolation of majority from the minority-constrains and issues is the source of possible conflicts on individual, society and even state levels. The ways of solution can be found in the holistic approach to the issue of ethnic minorities and isolation. The minorities must be included into the society, but majority society that sees threat to its ethno-national security by inclusion of minorities, should be prepared for this process. In order to manage situation, the gaps between the levels and strata of population should be overcome. The gap between the ethnicities, gap between the generation, the gap between the population, civil sector and the government, gap between the different regional and central bodies of Georgian government, gap between center and the region and the gap between the different regions should be filled in with the positive information, positive thinking, getting close to each other opinions, fears, needs, interests; sharing of experience and constructive dialogue. The meetings and sharing and educating are the mechanisms of ruling this misbalance in society. This is the hard process, but it is worth to begin, especially from the education and sensitivity rising of the future civic servants. Figure 1: Georgia with former autonomous Republic of South Ossetia; Autonomous Republics of Adjaria and Abkhazia Ethnic diversity in Georgia The case of Georgia is rather unique in Caucasus region, as other states are not so much diverse ethnically. Georgia was historically multiethnic country. The ethnic tolerance is very deeply rooted in mentality of Georgians, but in past decade the tolerance became stressed under question. In 1991 Georgia declared independence and the radical nationalist forces came into the head of the country. That time the slogan Georgia for Georgians was very popular and it became the stimulus of many changes in mentality, vision and politics. After 15 years of independence this 5

slogan and vision had its affects many times and still ethnic minorities are frightened or lobe their rights based on the argument of nationalistic approaches of early 90s. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the great migration was provoked in almost all post-soviet countries. During the decade about one million Georgians left the country for economical reasons mainly. Ethnic minorities migrated too either to their kin-states to Russia or Europe for economic reasons. According to the last census in 2002 3, total population of Georgia is about 4 400 000 people. Among them are 83.3% ethnic Georgians. Respective 17% of the population are ethnic minorities and Azeri group is the largest approximately 284 000 (6.5 %). The ethnic Armenians are approximately 250 000 (5.7%). Among other ethnicities are: Ossetians, Russians, Greek, Jews, Ukrainians, Kurds, Yezids, Kists and others, 120 nationalities in total resident Georgia. All the ethnic minorities except of Armenians and Azeri live randomly in all regions of Georgia, including the capital city Tbilisi. There are two regions of Georgia densely populated by ethnic minorities: Samtskhe-Javakheti which is Armenian-populated on the border to Armenia and Kvemo Kartli, Azeri populated region on the border to Azerbaijan. There is one district of Georgia Marneuli, which is situated n the Kvemo-Kartli region territory and Azeri and Armenian population lives there together. Armenian population represents about 60% of Samtskhe- Javakheti residents and it is the overwhelming majority (about 97%) of the population in two districts of Samtshe- Javakheti Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda. The Armenian population mainly lives in Samtskhe-Javakheti after the Ottoman aggression in the Russian-Turkish war in 1828 and the massive turn out of Armenian population from Turkish territories in the beginning of XX century. As about the Azeri living in Kvemo Kartli, they are have more complicated identity, which was construing during 400 years of their living in Georgia. They are mainly refugees from Iran mainly and live in Georgia about 200 years. In general Armenian and Azeri groups live in Georgia from mach earlier period, mainly in the capital city Tbilisi. Figure 2: Georgian Population by Ethnic Origin According to Relevant Census 1959 1970 1979 1989 2002 total % total % total % total % total % Total for 4044045 100 4686358 100 4993182 100 5400841 100 4371535 100 Georgia Georgians 2600588 64.3 3130741 66.8 3433011 68.8 3787393 70.1 3661173 83.8 Abkhaz 62878 1.6 79449 1.7 85285 1.7 95853 1.8 3527 0.1 Ossetians 141178 3.5 150185 3.2 160497 3.2 164055 3.0 38028 0.9 Armenians 442916 11.0 45309 9.7 448000 9.0 437211 8.1 248929 5.7 Russians 407886 10.1 396694 8.5 371608 7.4 341172 6.3 67671 1.5 Azeri 153600 3.8 217758 4.6 255678 5.1 307556 5.7 284761 6.5 Greek 72938 1.8 89246 1.9 95105 1.9 100324 1.9 15166 0.3 Jews 51582 1.2 55382 1.2 28298 0.6 24795 0.5 3772 0.1 Ukrainians 52236 1.3 49622 1.1 45036 0.9 52443 1.0 7039 0.2 Kurds 16212 0.4 20690 0.4 25688 0.5 33331 06. 2514 0.0 Yezids 18329 0.4 Other 42031 1.0 44282 0.9 44976 0.9 56708 1.0 13516 0.3 Comment: in 2002 census the number of Abkhaz and Ossetians are given only for the controlled territory, e.g. without Abkhazian and South Ossetian territories. Legal bases One of the main claims of ethnic minorities towards Georgian state is the lack of the legal bases for the minority rights protection. Georgian government didn t pay much attention to the minority legal bases, despite of the two ethno-political conflicts and several potentially conflicting regions. Georgia is adhered to all main international conventions and documents but the fact is that this documentation doesn t have analogues in real life. They are ratified mainly because of the international society stresses and demanded. The main argument about the protected rights of ethnic minorities from the side of the government representatives is the Article 29 and Article 38 of the Georgian Constitution where it is stated that all citizens of Georgia are equal, 3 State Department for Statistics of Georgia; Major Findings of First General Nations Population Census of Gerogia in 2002, Tbilisi, 2004 6

irrespectively of their ethnic, national, religious or language background. They are allowed to take any state position if he/she satisfies the needed criteria and requirements. Ethnic minorities can use their own language in any other spheres but the political. The official state language is Georgian and Abkhazian in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. There are other laws adopted in Georgia linked to the ethnic minority subject. They are: the Public Association Law and the Education Law. The Education law gives right to take education in the native language and there are Armenian, Azeri and Russian schools in Georgia still on the state level, but they are very quickly and largely closing because of the new reform of the education Vouches system which means that the school is based on the amount of expenses that government pays for each student and if there are not enough students at school, it cannot survive. As the amount of ethnic minority children in regions villages and towns are not enough because of migration and other factors, the schools are automatically closing. The Voucher system itself is a good experience for government, which needs to be free from the Soviet inheritance of state schools, but on the other hand nothing is prepared to preserve the ethnic minority schools from closing. So the ethnic minorities have the bases for claiming on the international standards of education on the native language. The Public Association Law gives right of free establishment of organization and association, but there is the Law of Political Parties which restricts the political establishment by the ethnic sign. So the ethnic minorities establish civic associations with the political aims. Georgia has adopted all the main international documents including European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Georgian Parliament have ratified the Frame Convention on Protection of Ethnic Minority Rights a year ago. As Georgian politicians argue, Georgia has all the needed documentations on national and international level protecting ethnic minorities and safe their national identification and give the free citizenship (The more liberal citizenship law was recently adopted with twofold citizenship), but as the ethnic minority representatives and experts argue, the reality is different from the good legislative bases, as the working mechanisms of the international and national conventions and laws are not established; for instance, the constant arguments between the state bodies and ethnic minority representatives about the representation in the governmental and selfgovernmental bodies, unfair distribution of land in the ethnic-minority populated regions, exclusion from the high education institutions because of the lack of state language knowledge. Main ethnic minority issues identified in Georgia The nationalism is twofold in Georgia: on the one hand, the nationalistically oriented politics of the State that is governed mainly by Georgians and on the other hand, nationalistic approaches of ethnic monitories and mainly those living compactly in the regions (Armenians and Azeri). In this respect the main problem that minority faces is the political exclusion. Participation of minorities in governance is very limited. The mostly represented group is Armenian, both on regional and state levels. The local government in Samtskhe-Jvakheti is mainly ruled by the Armenian civic servants. As about Azeri population, they have very small representation on local level, all key positions on the regional level in Kvemo Kartli are occupied by Georgians and there is almost none representation of Azeri on the central government level. Other ethnic minorities, as it was stated above, don t have active political position and their participation is also very small. This fact becomes the issue very frequently. The main message from the state bodies towards excluded ethnic minorities is the lack of state language knowledge. The language barrier is the second biggest issue for ethnic minorities. In the Soviet State the official language of Georgia together with Georgian was Russian and ethnic minorities preferred studding Russian language because of more broad language market in the whole Soviet territory. The state language issue is under the stress already for 15 years after the independence of Georgia. Lack of knowledge gave the reason for exclusion from the political and civic participation. In recent years ethnic minorities had a strong resistance towards studying Georgian language, but nowadays the state language became such a big incompatibility and uncomfortable issues for them that the approach has been changed. But another problem is underlined now: the time that is needed for generation to know Georgian language. The middle generation, who are still in employ ages and have experience and professionalism are not taken on positions because of language barrier which they cannot overcome because of their age. Another thing that recently was argued is related to the educational reform. The last year all the university entrants in Georgia set the state exams in Georgian language. The new branch of the Tbilisi State University that was opened in Akhalkalaki (Armenian populated administrative center) some years ago faced problems because of the new rule and could only except 2 Armenian students for the 2006 year. The aim of opening University in Javakheti became false and ineffective because of the strict regulations and equalization of all regions education approach. It even became the reason of riots in Akhalkalaki and together with the Russian base dismissal gave reason for meetings and actions with the demand of autonomous and separatism. The claim of minorities to the government is to give opportunity of studying language. Georgian language is taught in every school and high educational institution in Georgia, in edition there are some national and internationally organized and finances projects for civic servants studying language. The courses are not very much effective so far, because of the one more problem of ethnic minorities and regions of Georgia. The problem is isolation. There are very rare contacts with the minority populated regions of 7

Georgia. Some Armenian and Azeri even haven t been to Tbilisi, but they very frequently travel to Yerevan or Baku. Even the civic servants working on the same level in the different districts of the same region haven t met and don t have any sharing. The gap between the minorities and majority and the gap between the regions is very big problem threatening the integration of the state regions and parts. The lack of contacts doesn t create the positive environment for studding language and don t create the sufficient need of market for Georgian language. The socio-economic problems are the most complicated issue in whole Georgia including the minority population. But the ethnic concept gives the common social problems conflicting character. The demand of land-sharing (which is problematic in all regions in Georgia) became the source of ethnic claims in Kvemo Kartli; the energetic crisis becomes the ethnic issue in Javakheti, Kvemo Kartli and in minority-populated districts in Tbilisi; even queuing for a birth registration documents in local self-government offices becomes the issue for ethnic minorities. These and other reasons provoke the big migration of minorities from Georgia. The main reasons and aim of migration are unemployment, economic deficiency and education. Almost all minorities mainly move to Russia. Most of them leave their places, but there is a big amount of people migrating for working seasons. As about the education migrants, they stay in Armenia, Russia or Azerbaijan, as they cannot employ in Georgia because of the professional language barrier. The same can be told about the Georgian majority in respect of the migration rate and obviously migration is not only minority problem. During 15 years of independence almost one million Georgians left their places for the economical reasons. What is more frightening, the fear of distinction is very much linked to the migration process and this fear is common for ethnic minority as well as ethnic majority of Georgia. Cases: PA education institutions in Georgia General overview Although there are no statistics concerning the PA education institutions in Georgia, several of them are the most popular and the cases presented here are based on their experiences. After the collapse of Soviet Union there was a tendency of getting high education in Georgia. It seemed like a vital importance to have a diploma and academic background; meanwhile there was a general unemployment, poor social environment, unstable security and war situation. In this period paradoxically increased the number of private educational institutions: schools, institutes and universities. Great many high educational entities were registered by state. The reason of increasing in education value was very closely linked to the political and economical changes began with the democratization process. The free market principle found its existence in establishment of private high educational organizations. One more reason for increasing the educational value was that Georgia had a very big human resource in scientific and practical sphere. In Soviet Georgia education was one of the most ranking values and it caused growing in number of specialist with high education. The third reason can be of psychological character. The human being has the fundamental need for understanding the world that surrounds it. Educational and scientific systems are best ways for fulfilling this need and it is the very appropriate satisfier. But the satisfiers can become destructive and false in certain conditions, such as political changes, moving towards completely new system of living causes big personal disappointments and general pessimism in the citizens. In such conditions the people seek for the islands where they can survive. Sometimes this process lead to the false and destructive choice of need-satisfier, as it appeared to be in case of Georgian high education institutions in 90s. For the same reasons the most privileged and popular faculties of high education entities were: Law, Economics, Medical, diplomacy and Public Administration. This is interesting for our topic. It is worth to say, that the institutions of 90s were built upon the ineffective mixture of Soviet and Western systems, the models were very alienated and strange, most of the institutions gave academic education and no practical side of the profession was considered. The topics were far from the reality and very unnaturally copied from the Western University curricula. The human resources were very poor. In such conditions according to the unofficial statistics there were 200 institutes and universities only in Tbilisi, in addition to other high education entities in every district and region of Georgia, even in villages. It is obvious that only few educational institutions could prepare the people professionally. Most of the institutions became the source of economic survival for their owners and place of corruption. As it was expected these institutions disappeared very quickly as they couldn t stand the laws of developed market and private sector. But some of them were successful and they have 10-year history nowadays, such as the Z.Zhvania Georgian Institution of PA (GIPA), which was established by the Georgian government representatives by participation of USAID and other international institutions. 8

During the decade there were several high educational institutions where Public Administration was taught but none of them covered multiethnic issue and none of them developed the curricula fitting the ethnically diverse country. Moreover, there were a very few ethnic minority students, because the study-language - Georgian - was inaccessible for them. Another language of modern Western-module institutions became English, which was even more difficult to cope with for ethnic minorities, especially those living in the regions of Georgia, which remained largely behind the development in economic, political, social senses. The three PA education institution cases will be presented below in this section. These are: Georgian Technical University cathedra of employee Public Servant; Zurab Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA (Tbilisi) and Zurab Zhvania School of PA (Kutaisi). Their brief history, curricula and ethnic issue involvement will be discussed in frame of the cases. In addition the case of NGO involvement in practice of ethnic subject in PA education will be presented. Georgian Technical University: cathedra of employee of Public Service Department of State Management and Social communications was established in Georgian State Technical University in 1995. The cathedra of Employee of State Management independently functions from 2001. The main specializations of the cathedra are: State organizations manager and the State policy analyst. At the moment the number of students of the cathedra is quite high 194 BA and 46 MA. The number increases every year according to the rising need for PA education. The cathedra has 208 BA alumna and 26 persons obtained MA degree. In 2003 the new specialization in the State Policy was established and all available 36 places are occupied by students. Despite the fact that the cathedra don t do statistics of employment of its students, as the head of the cathedra said in the interview there is a big number of MA graduates employment in state structures. As about the ethnic minority statistics, the ethnic minority students represent only 1-3% of the students staff. The cathedra doesn t have any policy for increasing the number of ethnic minorities partly because of the language barrier, as the cathedra gives education only in Georgian and partly because of the opening the Z.Zhvania School of PA in Kutaisi, which is directly oriented on ethnic minority public servants education and training. The curricula of the specializations are very rich and wide. It consists of several directions and every direction is divided into subjects and courses. The overall picture of the curricula of PA cathedra in Georgian Technical University looks like the following: Law: 11 different courses State regulation: 13 courses Economics and finances: 10 courses Historical and political sciences: 9 courses Psychology and philosophy: 9 courses Philology and other sciences: 11 courses Despite the big number of courses and vide range of subjects there is no experience of inclusion of ethnic-diversity education in curricula. There is the experience of inviting experts and conducting free lections and dialogues at cathedra. The ethnic issue concerning the Abkhasian and Ossetian conflicts was discussed several times by experts and invited politicians together with students. The ethnic concept in decision making is covered slightly during the course of Human Resources Management, in frame of the discussions on Georgian legislative system according to which all citizens have right to be employed in public administration structure. The main constrain in inclusion of the ethnic subject in PA curricula is that the cathedra doesn t have the specialists in this direction and the state initiative and steps towards inclusion of ethnic diversity subjects in PA schools doesn t exist. Zurab Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA (Tbilisi) The Z.Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA (GIPA) was established in 1995. It is the most popular and elite high education institution in PA education in Georgia. The institute has to entities: School of Public Administration and Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management. The school has 100 students and 369 alumnae. The school was established by the Georgian government initiative on donation of USA foundations. The School of Public Administration offers four different MA specializations and has established the different project for the: The School of Government (SG), Local government center (LGC), Continuing Education and International Affairs. The issues of ethnic subject is still challenging in the school, as there is no curriculum dedicated to the issues. The ethnic minority graduates number is extremely small. No minority representative studies there at the moment. The 9

Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management have experience of receiving the students from Azerbaijan and Armenia, but this is not the same for the School of Public Administration. Zurab Zhvania School of PA (Kutaisi) The school is the most interesting subject for the research. It was established in June 2005, based on the special Decree of the President of Georgia, according to the instructions of government of Georgia About the target state program on establishment of Zurab Zhvania School of Public Administration and professional retraining and improvement of professional skills of the Public Administrators. The school officially was opened in December 2005 by the President and other officials of Georgian Parliament and in the beginning of the year 2006 it accepted the first flow of the students. The mission of the school is to facilitate integration of ethnic minorities in political, social and public process that are underway in Georgia and to promote: Overcoming the professional deficit, existing in the management of the state and local self-government bodies of Georgia; Improvement of professional skills of local level public servants country wide; Offering modern, western type human resource management methods with its theoretical and practical materials; Informing ethnic minority public officials about state and legal issues of Georgia. The school offers two programs: Georgian language program for public servants and Public administration program. The school language is Georgian which in this example is very important for ethnic minorities as they lack the language knowledge and Georgian environments. This is the second positive side of the school, as it is situated in city of Kutaisi, the almost completely Gerogian populated region. The privileged target groups of the school are ethnic minorities and also majority from the mountainous regions of Georgia. But other participants are also discussed and accepted. The School was widely promoted by the government itself and Mass Media, the first flow of students consist of 75 persons, 50 students of the Language class and other 25 attend the Administration class. As about the ethnic representation, 70 students are ethnic minorities: mainly Azeri, Armenian, few Greeks and Ossetians. Only 5 students are Georgian. Despite all the positive sides of the opening of this school, it still lacks the main stream: inclusion. As the school serves generally ethnic minorities and the representatives from the mountainous regions of Georgia, it means that ethnic minorities are isolated from the majority. It also means that the post graduate students will have very small chance to move to the central governmental institutions and they are prepared precisely for the regional selfgovernment system. After a while the school can be transformed from the inclusion tool to the exclusionary body. Findings: why ethnic concept is undeveloped in PA education The first and most important cause of ethnic issues exclusion is the general lack of sensitivity towards the issue. The sensitivity is low on different levels of the society and state life: governmental and decision-making level, ethnic majority level, educational level and generally the concept is seen as non important on population level. The main reasons for lack of sensitivity is the historical, cultural and psychological concept of Georgian tolerance, which indeed has very deep roots and there are lots of historical examples of tolerance towards other nations representatives in Georgia. But the tolerance has the generalized character towards one or another national level, but on the personal level the stereotyping, prejudices, exclusion and nationalism markers can be noted frequently. Another issue is the lack of interest towards ethnic subject by the government and the nationalistically orientated democracy system of Georgia. The overwhelming thinking of the state officials on ethnic issues and problem is like this: there is the Georgian Constitution according to which all citizens are equal, Georgia is adjusted to different international conventions on ethnic minority rights and Parliament works on shaping the Frame Convention and this is enough for the ethnically diverse country like Georgia. In addition to this, the ethic challenge is not recognized manifestly as problematic, so government and decision-makers prefer not to awake the problem and not to work in this direction. All the ethnicities who declared the wish of autonomy in Georgia has got it, such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The different Diasporas are established in Georgia, such as Lithuanian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Kurd and others and work on challenges on civic level. This is the government position, but it still doesn t limit working of nongovernmental system on ethnic issues. 10

The state initiative on education of ethnic minority public servants became realistic only this year by opening the School of Public Administration in Kutaisi, but despite of positive sides, the school entails the risk of exclusion and isolation in itself. The other high education institutions of PA doesn t work in ethnic direction, don t raise the subject of ethnic minority public servants education and training. The reason stated by PA education institutions stakeholders is that of the lack of state policy towards coping with the issues, as the state bodies have to decide about inclusion of the ethnic subjects in Georgian high education institutions. Another big problem of exclusion of ethnic minorities is the language barrier. As almost all the institutions offer education in Georgian or English language, this fact becomes the natural source of minority exclusion, especially from the regions, as they lack the knowledge of stage language and foreign languages. Despite the general lack of sensitivity and lack of state initiative, the stakeholders of PA institutions declare their wish to discuss the subject and take it into consideration, even create the experience and invite some specialists from NGO sector. But here is another problem of putting the ethnic diversity subject into curricula: lack of specialists and teachers in this direction. This is linked to the issue of creating the curricula, as there are almost none specialists in high education institutions able to work on ethnic concept in public education and create the teaching manuals. Good practice: case of NGO involvement Nongovernmental sector is quit developed in Georgia. It cannot be said about all the regions but still it takes its important role together with governmental and business sectors. There are some nongovernmental organizations working in the ethnic diversity field. They offer training, discussions of problematic subjects, different seminars on international law and Georgian legislation, prevention of ethnic conflicts and ways of resolution of Abkhasian and Osetian conflicts. The folk diplomacy dimension works on the conflicting fields. Civic sector organizes workshops and working conferences on ethnic issues, invite experts, run projects in regions of Georgia concerning fulfillment the needs of ethnic minority population, promoting integration, teaching language and many other fields. In much of the cases the initiative comes from the international organization and lots of international funds are raised by NGO sector in this direction. But the field of ethnic minorities inclusion in public cervices and public servants education is the new niche for NGO sector. Nongovernmental organization Foundation for Development of Human Resources (FDHR) found its niche in ethnic minority problems and integration promotion in Georgia. Organization was established in 1995 and its mission is promotion of the development of human positive potential, which leads towards peace and well-being in civil society. FDHR works in ethnic direction very actively at the moment. It implements the projects Management of interethnic relations in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Karli regions with the target group of civic servants of local government and self-government and has the significant results in rising sensitivity towards the ethnic issues, rising dialogue between the central and regional governmental and nongovernmental structures and thus overcome the isolation and alienation; working on the problems of the regions in ethnic direction and creating the Code of Ethics of interethnic Relations in Georgia as the important memorandum between ethnic minority and majority civic servants of the regions. The project is assisted by the OSCE High Commissioner on National minorities which implements the big and multilevel work towards ethnic integration of the country. One of the working directions of the project is training in Management of Interethnic Relations at Z.Zhvania School of Public Administration in Kutaisi. This is the first experience of inclusion of ethnic subject in PA schools in Georgia. The involvement will be developed by the request of the students and interest of the administration of the school during 2006. FDHR offers the training of trainers at school. The administration plans to include the subject into curricula together with gender diversity concept. The future plans of FDHR are to initiate the dialogue between the PA education stakeholders to work on the ethnic diversity concept and its inclusion into the curricula of PA schools, offer the TOT and its manual in Management of Interethnic Relations. Conclusions and implications Ethnic concept development is very important for Georgia as multiethnic country. Remarkable problems are seen in the public service and ethnic minority inclusion in this sphere. For the development of the vision and rising awareness it is needed to begin working on the subject from the educational institutions. Ethnic diversity concept and its inclusion becomes significant theme for the PA education institution of Georgia: Zurab Zhvania School of PA, The cathedra of Employee of State Management of Georgian Technical University and Zurab Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA. The cases of these institutions were discussed earlier and there is no ethnic subject example in their curricula except the newly opened School of PA, where the NGO involvement is welcomed for training in Management of interethnic relations. Here are some conclusions and some implications on the subject of PA education and inclusion of ethnic diversity component in it. 11

PA education is very underdeveloped in terms of inclusion of ethnic diversity component in it. The fact is that the overall vision is not developed on the ethnic diversity management in the country. Some politicians consider the issues at threatening for national security and potentially conflicting, so on the governmental level both legislative and executive parts try to avoid the issue and discussions on it. The sensitivity towards the ethnic issue is low and the information doesn t circulate about the conditions of ethnic minorities in Georgia, or the negative information prevails, that causes the formation of prejudices and even enemy image between the majority and minorities. Lack of state and public sensitivity is reflected on the education system and the attitude of stakeholders towards the issue. Almost no Public administration high education institutions include the ethnic subject in their curricula. Ethnic minority participation in PA education is low as well. The reasons can be characterized by the barriers ethnic minorities face in education in Georgia. The first is the language problem, as ethnic minorities don t speak Georgian state language which is in most cases privileged language of high education institutions and PA institutions in particular. The second reason can be the historically developed habit of migration to kin-states for education (Armenia, Azerbaijan and others) or Russian language education, which is not fitting for public service almost 15 years of Georgian state independence. The situation towards language studying became progressive between the new generations of ethnic minorities, who are eager to participate in state and social life. The interest in ethnic diversity subject inclusion and working with ethnic minorities integration becomes popular and the PA education stakeholders show increasing interest in the issue. But lack of appropriate human resources, teaching and training and methodology development is obvious problem in this direction. The positive marker is that almost all interviewed PA education institutions stakeholders and students aware the need for the ethnic subject inclusion in education and are ready for dialogue. Only NGOs work on the ethnic diversity education and training at high schools and interested communities. The number of these NGOs is very small and since there is not real initiative of the involvement of the subject from the side of PA education stakeholders so far, the international institutions take the responsibility of the subject development and finance. There is the good example of developing the issue of ethnic minority inclusion into PA education. The School of Public Administration was opened in 2006 precisely for ethnic minority public servants. Despite the positive effect of the school, specialists and experts speak about the danger of stopping only on PA school and not to develop the subject for other PA education institutions. Lack of guarantees of participation and employment for PA graduates is one more observed problem. Ethic minority students expressions are more stressful in this direction. They have the will and promise from the president, but the results can be seen only after some time, as the School of PA released its first flow of ethnic minority students only in April 2006. The unemployment percentage is very high in Georgia and the problems of job hunting are the same for ethnic majority, but the disappointment of ethnic minority students will be one more latent cause of the conflict and isolation. There is the fertail base for the positive development of the subject in Georgian PA education institutions. There are human resources interested in training, stakeholders of institutions and Ministry of Education ready for dialogue. There are NGO sector representatives who have experience in working on the subject, have trained specialists and can serve as the base for development of the subject for the first time before educational institutions train the staff. 12

List of interviewed persons 1. Mrs. Tamar Abdaladze, executive director of the Z.Zhvania School of PA, Kutaisi 2. Mr. Shota Dogonadze, the head of PA cathedra in Tbilisi Technical University, Tbilisi 3. Ms. Tamar Kaldani, Z.Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA, Tbilisi 4. Mrs. Nino Gerkeuli, professor at Z.Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA, Tbilisi 5. Mrs. Tsira Meskhishvili, expert from Samtskhe-Javakehti 6. Mr. Vagarshak Shakhbekyan, expert from Samtskhe-Javakehti 7. Ms. Leila Suleimanova, expert from Kvemo Kartli 8. Mr. George Geguchadze, advisor of the speaker of Parliament of Georgia 9. Mr. Paata Shavishvili, head of the section of the State Department for Statistics of Georgia 10. Mr. Manguli Khubua, head of the section of State Integration at President s administration 11. Ms. Tamar Japaridze, Student of the Z.Zhvania School of PA, Kutaisi 12. Mr. Kazanfar Mamedov, Student of the Z.Zhvania School of PA, Kutaisi 13. Mr. Ruben Pahlyan, Student of the Z.Zhvania School of PA, Kutaisi 14. Ms. Magda Sharia, Student of the PA cathedra in Tbilisi Technical University, Tbilisi 15. Mr. George Melkadze, Student of the PA cathedra in Tbilisi Technical University, Tbilisi 16. Ms. Eka Basilaya, Student of the Z.Zhvania Georgian Institute of PA, Tbilisi 13

References Sabanadze, N. (2005), Georgia s ethnic democracy: source of instability, S.Smooha and P.Jarve (Edts) The Fate of Ethnic Democracy in Post-Communist Europe, LGI/ECMI, Hungary. Sharpe: 115-139 State Department for Statistics of Georgia (2004): Major findings of the first central national population census of Georgia in 2002, Tbilisi. Sharpe: 54-84 The Union of Democrat Meskhs (2005): The problems of polytechnic society in Samtskhe-Javakheti. Akhaltsikhe, Funded by European Council 14