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Sport Academy Is About to Be Sold

July 19, 2007

Employees and students of the Sport Academy gathered in front of the State Chancellery and demanded to maintain independent status of the institute

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Protest demonstrations have been held for a week already to protect Sport Academy from abolishment. According to the decision of the Ministry of Sport, Culture and Monument Protection Academy is going to join Ilia Chavchavadze State University. Students and lecturers of the Academy, as well as veteran sportsmen, claim that the situation will result into a total collapse in Georgian sport and they are not going to give in.

Representatives of the Academy petitioned to the President Mikheil Saakashvili to veto the decision and not to allow the government to abolish the institute. Demonstrators hope that the President will satisfy their urges.

Representatives of the Academy claim that the principal interest in up-coming changes is the privatization of the building. The Human Rights Center (HRIDC) got in touch with Kakha Motsradze, the head of the Sport and Culture Center within the Sport Academy. He substantiated the reasons why the academy should not be abolished.

Kakha Motsradze: “If we join Ilia Chavchavadze State University, our rights will be restricted and we will not be independent any longer. Gigi Tevzadze, rector of the Ilia Chavchavadze University, stated that we will not have separate rector and management authorities. Consequently, we will have fewer rights than any other faculty at the University. Those faculties will have elected dean while we will have elected director. They promise us to maintain our name; but we will have a director and not a rector who sill be appointed by the Ilia Chavchavadze State University’s rector. I do not want to speak about it. God save us from it! Our principal demand is to maintain the independence of the Academy as well as our rector and management authorities.”

Journalist: Your opponents, people who made similar decision, stated that the professors of the Academy are fighting only for their positions.

K.M: We are ready to resign immediately to demonstrate that we are not fighting for our positions. Our principal demand is to maintain the independent status of the Academy.

Journalist: Do you have any other demands besides independent status?

K.M: There are many problems. For example, Chavchavadze University does not have sport lodge and scientific laboratories we have at the Academy. They are just giving promises, however they have not offered anything real. Can you imagine how valuable the lodges are in possession of the Academy and seventy years were spent to build up them. It will be completely impossible to provide enough sport grounds and scientific labs for 3 000 students of the Academy; I do not know how they will manage it. The Academy is not only the building of the Academy it consists of sport halls, large football pitch, mini sport grounds, basketball and volleyball grounds, two large gyms, wrestling pitch, etc.

Journalist: Are you going to lose all above-mentioned grounds if the building is sold out?

K.M: Yes, we are. If we leave the building, we will lose everything.

Journalist: It is natural that the decision was not made spontaneously. Did you involve any negotiations before or did anybody ask veteran sportsmen their opinion regarding the issue?

K.M: Nobody has met Academy’s Council and lecturers. However, the Sport Academy was the first who carried out reforms envisaged under the Law on Education. We were the first to elect academic and representative council, students’ self-governments, rector, the head of the Administration, spokesman and all those structural and authoritative bodies that are envisaged in the law.

Journalist: The Minister, Giorgi Gabashvili, stated that the decision is final and nothing will be changed. What do you think was the reason for raising similar question in the government?

K.M: The principal reason is territorial interest. They are keen on the territory and building. They are not trying to keep their interests in secret and stated that the building should be sold out.

Journalist: Don’t you know who the investor is? Your opponents state that they might offer better conditions to you. Did you hear any concrete proposals from them?

K.M: Unfortunately, we have not heard anything about the investor yet. I cannot tell who is purchasing the building. Nobody has discussed the question with us.

Journalist: Several days ago you met Gigi Tevzadze. Haven’t you agreed on anything?

K.M: Mr. Gigi Tevzadze also protects the interests of his university. If we were in his place, we would have acted in the same way. He aims to strengthen his university. One of the problems is that they have abolished the faculty for training the coaches- that was the leading department of the Academy. When we petitioned to Gabashvili he apologized to us for having omitted the faculty from the list. They promised to insert it again. Now, if we join the university, they are supposed to maintain only the faculty for physical training. Whereas the faculty for coach-training includes 42 fields of sport and we have skilled trainers in every field. If a student takes classes in main building, how will they go to sport grounds to train? Have they ever thought over this problem? OK, we will move out from the building, but they should maintain the status of the Academy, it should have a rector and management authorities. 

Journalist: The demonstrations have been held for almost a week to protect the Academy. Do you have any hope and what are you going to do?

K.M: Activists’ group of the Sport Academy prepared a petition to the President. We urge him not to destroy the institution we have been building for seventy years.

Journalist: If you join the Chavchavadze University, does it mean that the sport will not develop in our country and all our current achievements in the filed will fade away?

K.M: In our case development should not be viewed as our objective. We are training coaches. Our government is building gyms which will need trainers who should train sportsmen. If we do not have qualified coaches with correspondent experience gained at the Academy, who will train future generation and how we will have excellent results. It is Sport Academy’s merit that the country has 18 Olympic and 150 world champions. Many foreign students learn at our Academy who arrived in Georgia to take that particular course. They receive a diploma and will not need any other training in the future. Our former students are very successful sportsmen in nearly 100 countries throughout the world. 

Journalist: According to spread information, the Ministry of Sport, Culture and Monument Protection did not pay you the funds apportioned to your Academy and you have no information about it. Can you tell us the total amount of that sum?

K.M: The Ministry ordered us to train 200 people. Thus we accepted 200 students in 2005-2006. The Ministry was to pay their education fees though we have not received any money yet. In addition to that, they ordered us to train 70 other students too. Total amount of the debt reaches 2 million lari.

Journalist: Whereas the President stated that sport is one of major priorities of the country, how can you explain similar attitude of the government to your Academy?

K.M: The Presidents seems not to know our problems. We are going on with demonstrations in order to inform the President.

The Human Rights Center tried to get in touch with the Ministry of Sport, Culture and Monument Protection to hear the comments on the situation. However the Ministry keeps silence. The only statement regarding the Academy was made by the Minister who said that the question is settled and nothing will be changed.

When this interview was already prepared, News Agency “Medianews” published Minister Giorgi Gabashvili’s comments on the argument. He stated that the Georgian State Academy of Physical Training and Sport will join the Ilia Chavchavadze State University “with independent status.”

“Everybody, who will be ready to take part in integration process, will maintain his/her administrative positions in the Academy. Them, who has absurd opinions about the status of the Academy, we should remind them that educational institution is not a state to fight for its status. They should fight for giving better education to their students and we are providing you best conditions for it,’ said Giorgi Gabashvili.

The Minister added that every student will take the same course after the integration of high schools and will receive corresponding diploma. However, the diploma will be issued by the University and not Academy. According to the Minister, the students will have two modern sport grounds-“Karishkhala” and “Ska”.


Eka Gulua  

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