On June 1, former employees of the National Examination Center met with representatives of the civil society, international organizations and the media. The news conference was held in Tbilisi Marriott Hotel with the support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF).
The employees commented on the reasons leading to their decision to leave their job and the current circumstances.
On May 29, around 60 out of the ministry’s 150 employees have resigned after the fact of firing Maia Miminoshvili the head of the National Examinations Center.
Please, see the text of the statement made by the employees of the National Examination Center during the news conference. The text of the statement is provided without any alterations:
The Statement of Former Employees of the National Examination Center
“Even though we have already expressed our stance regarding the decision made by the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, the ensuing developments and information, which has been biased in most cases, have prompted us to make further explanations.
Leaving the job was our principled decision made in response to the totally ungrounded and irresponsible decision of the Minister, the policy pursued by him and his activities.
In no way shall the decision be associated with any of political views. We will feel offended if some political motifs are sought behind our decision.
We would like to note that the National Examination Center has always served the principles of fairness and impartiality, it has been building the system free of corruption. However, apparently these principles run counter to the Minister’s policy. His attempts to roughly interfere with the work of the center serve as evidence. The National Examination Center and the head of the center were against such interference. The draft amendments provided by the Minister to the center is a good example of this. According to the amendments the Appeals Commission was entitled to review students’ works with the names of students indicated openly. Apparently enough such a change, which runs counter to the principle of anonymity of works, provides an opportunity for manipulation with points. Maia Miminoshvili, head of the National Examination Center, and the staff of the center took a firm stand against the draft, which ultimately became one of the reasons for the Minister’s decision.
We have stayed in the public space but out of the public office. Therefore now we can hold discussions with the Ministry about the education policy on a par with them rather than their subordinates.
Let us assure you that like Maia Miminoshvili, we are most interested in running unified national examinations smoothly. This is the job in which we have put a lot of energy and we are ready to support smooth running of examinations even after leaving the job.
At the same time, we would like to draw attention of international and human rights organizations to the fact that the former employees have been under pressures and have been intimidated. We think the former head of the center is facing special risks and danger. Therefore we urge human rights advocates to lend their support.
Finally, we demand strongly that people be explained publicly the reason for which the Minister made this unprepared and irresponsible decision. Why did he make this fundamental staff change right in the process of the examinations, on May 28?”
Media on the issue:
Dozens File for Resignation After Sacking of NEC Head, Civil.ge, 29 May, 2012;
Georgia’s education sector reports political harassment, DFWatch.net, 2 june, 2012.