Georgia was a transit area and origin of Indo-European / Aryan tribes, belonged to the eastern sphere of influence of Mediterranean cultures, was a mission area of Christianity since the 1st century and since the 8th century the northern periphery of the Islamic world under Arab, Persian and Ottoman rule, until the 18th century In the 18th century, the conquest by Russia led to a modern overprinting of the oriental-Caucasian worlds. Today Georgia is a member of the Council of Europe and a partner of NATO. Society is in an extremely contradicting phase of upheaval: In search of national identity and manifestation of independence, a return to intellectual and cultural values of the pre-Soviet period takes place and at the same time one seeks integration into (Western) European structures and values. The latter was confirmed in June 2014 with the signing of the EU Association Agreement.more
Literacy rate: 99.4% (2019)
Major religions: 83% Christianity (Georgian Orthodox), 11% Islam
Urban population: 58.6%
Life expectancy (HDI 2020 for 2019): 73.6 years (78 women: 69.2 men)
Gender Inequality Index (HDI 2020 for 2019): 0.692
Number of births (fertility rate, HDR 2019): 2.1 / woman
Child mortality (HDR 2020 for 2019): 9.7 per 1,000 live births
Ethnic and linguistic diversity
The Karvelebi (georg. ქართველები) form the largest cultural group among the Georgian citizens. The Christian Mingrelians / Megrelen / Kolcher live in the north-west, in Odishi and Guria as well as in the Mingrelia – Semo-Svaneti region. They speak a South Caucasian language that is related to Georgian.
Related to the Mingrelians are the Lasen who live on the southeastern Black Sea coast in parts of the provinces Artvin and Rize, of which smaller groups also live in the Georgian Autonomous Republic of Adjara and Turkey. Unlike the Mingrelians, the Lasen are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school of law. All Lasa speak Lasic, which, together with Mingrelian, belongs to the family of the San languages, which in turn are a subgroup of the Kartwelic languages.
The fourth of the larger Georgian cultural groups are the Svans / Swanen / Svaneti. They too speak their own language, Swanish, which also belongs to the Kartwelian language family. Although each cultural group has its own language, literature and education are conveyed via the common language and the alphabet of “Georgian”, which has its origins in the fifth century and has been the official language since the state was founded.
Education
Education System
The levels of Georgian education include the following stages:
- Pre-school area for children not yet of school age
- Primary level (6 years of compulsory schooling)
- Lower secondary level (up to grade 9)
- Upper secondary level (“intermediate level of education”)
- higher education (Bachelor, Magister)
- postgraduate studies (doctoral studies)
According to hyperrestaurant, Georgia joined the Bologna Process in 2005. Since 2010 there has been a German school abroad in Tbilisi, which leads from kindergarten to the German Abitur.
In Tbilisi there are state universities as well as private universities that are accredited by the Georgian Ministry of Science and Education. Lt. Analysis of the DAAD from 2017 are the type of the Tbilisi State University named after the Georgian historian Iwane Dschawachischwili (TSU), the Georgian Technical University(GTU) and the Tbilisi State Medical University essentially unchanged. The second largest state-owned Ilia State University has developed from the former teacher training college. The former agricultural university merged in 2011 with the private Free University, which in turn emerged from a newly founded business school (ISM) to which the former Institute for Oriental and African Languages was attached. Other well-known private universities are the Caucasus University, the University of Georgia and the New Vision University, founded in 2013 for medicine. The International Black Sea University with Georgian and English as the language of instruction was opened in 1995 as a Georgian-Turkish project, the Georgian American University is operated in cooperation with American donors. At the state universities in particular, there are numerous partnerships with German universities, such as Jena, Saarbrücken, Berlin and Giessen. The largest university in Georgia is Tbilisi State University, which was founded in 1918. It has five branches in different regions of Georgia and around 60 scientific research laboratories and centers. Through a certification process, the number of more than 360 state-recognized universities across the country was reduced in 1991 to 63. In 2010 that became National Center for Education Quality Enhancement (NCEQE) founded as the successor to the National Center for Educational Accreditation, which reviews and, if necessary, accredits courses at Georgian universities on the basis of international quality standards. The EQE also recognizes the academic achievements of foreign students in Georgia.
A study from Kassel in 2008 presented a critical analysis of the higher education system, a study on the educational reform of UNESCO came from 2010/11, and the DAAD website currently provides information on the situation in the higher education sector.
Vocational training is an acute problem. Despite high unemployment, positions cannot be filled because the unemployed job applicants have different skill profiles than are required by companies on the labor market. In many occupational fields, there is a growing need for new, needs-based qualified workers, which the existing vocational training system cannot guarantee. Many young people either have a university degree or are unskilled workers, there is little in between. One focus of German-Georgian development cooperation is the introduction of the dual system of vocational training. At the same time, BMZ has supported special return programs since 2015 in cooperation with GIZ experts on their reintegration in Georgia.
