Purpose and legal basis of the law
The field of special professional education in Georgia is governed by a dedicated law whose purpose is to regulate the process of delivering special professional education, to establish the procedure for receiving it and to define the status of the special professional educational institution. Under the law’s definition, special professional education is education aimed at preparing a person for future professional activity in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and/or the State Security Service of Georgia.
The legal basis of the field consists of the Constitution of Georgia, the international treaties of Georgia, the special law itself and other normative acts of Georgia. The law treats this education as a distinct branch of professional preparation directly linked to service in two state agencies, and for that reason it determines not only the educational process but also the circle of institutions entitled to implement its programmes.
Principal forms of study and the participants
Within the framework of the educational process the law distinguishes several forms of study, each serving a different situation:
- special professional training — a teaching process aimed at the acquisition of fundamental special professional knowledge and the development of the skills required in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and/or the State Security Service;
- retraining — a teaching process aimed at acquiring special professional knowledge different from that received earlier, caused by the need to change the specifics of the special professional activity;
- qualification advancement — a teaching process aimed at the acquisition of additional special professional knowledge and the refinement of skills by a person who already holds a special professional qualification.
Among the participants, a listener is a person who studies under a special professional educational programme, and an instructor is a person who teaches the listener in order to develop theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Knowing these definitions precisely matters for anyone planning their continuing education in the agencies: mastering a new specialisation is achieved through retraining, while deepening an existing qualification through qualification advancement.
Goals and the right to receive education
The goals of special professional education in Georgia are to provide the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service with qualified personnel, to ensure the retraining and qualification advancement of the employees of these agencies, and to develop the learning system in the field of special professional education. The law thereby serves both the preparation of new personnel and the professional growth of those already serving.
The right to receive special professional education belongs to everyone, except persons who, in accordance with Georgian legislation, are not accepted into the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the State Security Service. The specific grounds for such non-admission are determined by the relevant legislation — the special education law does not restate them separately.
The educational programme and the assessment of listeners
A special professional educational programme is implemented in order to study the basic issues that are necessary for the performance of the duties assigned to employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service and for the exercise of the rights granted to them. In other words, the content of the programme derives directly from the functions that an employee performs in service.
A special professional educational institution is obliged to ensure fair assessment of the listener in accordance with established criteria. The assessment system and criteria are determined by the institution itself in the manner established by Georgian legislation — which means that, to clarify the concrete rules of assessment, a listener should examine the documentation of the chosen institution before beginning the studies.
Status, legal form and functions of the institutions
The law names the following structures as special professional educational institutions:
- the Academy of Public Safety and Police — a public-law legal entity within the governance sphere of the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
- the State Reserves and Civil Security Services Agency — a public-law legal entity within the governance sphere of the Emergency Management Service, part of the state subordinated institution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
- a respective unit or institution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs holding the relevant powers;
- a respective unit or institution of the State Security Service holding the relevant powers;
- the State Security Academy — a public-law legal entity within the governance sphere of the State Security Service.
The functions of these institutions are defined uniformly by the law: they teach under the special professional educational programme; they deliver teaching under retraining and qualification-advancement programmes for the purposes of professional development, the acquisition of special professional knowledge and the development and refinement of skills; and, on a contractual basis, they ensure the organisation and conduct of the relevant training courses for special professional training and retraining.
The management of a special professional educational institution is carried out in accordance with its statute (regulations) — meaning that the internal structure and governance of each institution are determined by its own constituent document.
The instructor and the restriction on personnel
The listener is taught, for the purpose of developing theoretical knowledge and practical skills, by an instructor who must have higher education or at least 3 years of work experience in the relevant field. This alternative requirement allows the law to bring into teaching both persons with academic education and highly qualified practitioners.
For personnel the law establishes a strict restriction: a person convicted of committing a crime directed against sexual freedom and inviolability under the Georgian law on combating crimes against sexual freedom and inviolability, and/or a person whom a court, on the basis of the same law, has deprived of the right to carry out activity in an educational institution, cannot be employed in a special professional educational institution. This rule directly serves the safety of the listeners and the trustworthiness of the educational environment.
Socio-legal obligations and the State Security Academy
During the course of studies a special professional educational institution is obliged to create, on the territory of the institution, an environment safe for health and life — this is its socio-legal obligation within the meaning of the law. This safety requirement covers the entire period of the educational process and concerns the environment in which the listener is actually present.
The law sets a separate regime for the State Security Academy: the norms regulating the activity of the special professional educational institution extend also to the State Security Academy, which, in accordance with the Georgian law on higher education, implements an academic higher education programme, as well as the relevant training programme or course. By this decision, the unified standards of special professional education are common to both agencies.