"The strength of a unified Georgian state is its diversity..."

Mikheil Saakashvili  
President of Georgia

8 Jan. 2010 National Concept for Tolerance and Civil Integration The first that is mentioned in the goals of the the National Concept for Tolerance and Civil Integration is creation an environment of tolerance and respect among every person living in Georgia. 15 questioned residents of Marneuli, had difficulties with explanation the word ”tolerance”. -Don’t know, I think it’s a good word,- said Manana Nozadze from Marneuli. Some thought that the tolerance was a person. -We know nothing about him, who ever he is, no one tells us anithing,- said Firdovs Makarov. The tolerance is explained as following: a dialogue between cultures, getting acquainted with the culture, language and religion of ethic minorities; and present them as cultural values of the country. Teaching tolerance at public schools is foreseen in the Action Plan. The implementation obligation took the Ministry of Education and Scince and federation ”Save the Children”. ”A good communication is obligatory for a successful integration of nations. They must know the culture of each other. There are no programs or are just in cities, no one remembers of villages”,- said Zaur Dargalli, the representative of the Marneuli Youth Center. The main problem of the Marneuli Municipality ethnic minorities is a language barrier. A fourty-year old Irida Alieva, living in Jandara, due to not knowing the georgian language has to watch Azerian TV channels and receive information about the country from the media organizations rom abroad. Azerian news repoting has ben terminated from may, 2009 at the Marneuli TV. The municipality hasn’t any other media organizations. According to the Action Plan, the rehabilitation of the public TV channel system is foreseen in the regions settled with ethnic minorities. The representatives of the public broadcasting conducted social rsearch in Marneuli. Azerian citizens of different ages and  sex were questioned. The goal of the research was identification of the programs ethnic minorities would like to watch on their own language. ”We make the product according to the public request. We plan to include local journalists as well”,- said Malkhaz Vardosanidze, the head of the regional service of the public broadcasting. ”It’s very good, we don’t want Azerian or Russian channels any more, we want to watch the broadcasting of our country and get information. This process will support friendship of georgians and Azerians”,- said the Director of Marneuli public school #2, Eliura Aliev. As the representatives of the public broadcasting explained, the contract will be signed at the beggining of 2010 with Marneuli TV. At the first stage, news reporting will be aired in Azerian language; the other production will be prepared later. The representatives of civic sector like the initiative of the public broadcasting, though they have some remarks. ”It doesn’t mean that we receive information perfectly because we will watch only one channel. What if someone wants to watch something else? It’s better to learn georgian language and deside which channel to watch”,- said Ainura Alieva. The language barriers made some difficulties for the pupils of the Marneuli Municipality public school. The literature in preparation for the national study olympiad is in georgian language. Either teachers nor pupils were able to prepare for the olympiad. ”The preparetion materials for the olympiad were in georgian. Even teachers can’t understand it. We can’t translate because the terms are quite difficult. The teacher has to prepare pupils according to the program, but the questions are different. I don’t think that non-georgian language pupils will succeed in the olympiad, though they wish to”,- said the Director of the public school #3, Eliura Alieva. ”We can’t prepare properly. We can’t understand the bucklets. We don’t even have a book in physics”, - said the pupil of the Marneuli public school #3, Sabina Aqverdieva. ”The accent must be shifted from the high classes to elementary school classes. They try to give high classes to the teacher who works by highly salaried state program at school; and this is not right. A high school pupils have little time for language study; and it’s more important to begin with elementary classes”,- said Lia Tushuri, the expert in multulingue study. The National Concept for Tolerance and Civil Integration elaborates national strategy and objectives in six main directions: rule of law; education and state language; media and access to information; political integration and civil participation; social and regional integration; culture and preservation of identity. The Action Plan implies specific activities and programs according to strategic directions of the Concept that must be implemented in the next five years. Responsible for the implementation of relevant components of the Action Plan are specific governmental bodies, which are indicated in the document. Nona Samkharadze, Marneuli http://www.cida.ge/media/eng/articles.php?id=108