Azeri Language Dropped from Georgia’s School Curriculum

Anspress Azeri news agency reports the Chairperson of National Assembly of Georgian Azerbaijanis, Mr. Dashgin Gulmammadov, as saying that Azerbaijanis living in Georgia face “serious problems.”

Azeris Discriminated

In a press conference held on 3 March 2009, Mr. Gulmammadov demanded Georgian officials to solve problems of Azeris concerning their land ownership and education rights. He claimed that the Georgian government exercises national discrimination against the local Azeri population.

“Eighty percent of Azerbaijanis have no land. Land areas belonging to Azerbaijanis are being sold to Georgian citizens from central Georgia and Tbilisi. Today, the Education Ministry of Georgia resumes its program of shutting down Azerbaijani schools.”

Mr. Gulmammadov said that as of September 2009 the subject “Native Language” [Azerbaijani] will be dropped from the curriculum in accordance with a decision taken by the Education Ministry of Georgia.

In contrast, he suggested that the Azerbaijani language be given the status of “second state language,” taking into account the size of the Azeri minority in the country. “We demand for granting state status to Azerbaijani language which is spoken by more than 620 thousand people in the country, in line with the commitments Georgia has undertaken before the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and NATO.”

Anspress specifies that the number of Azeris in Georgia has become a subject of much debate. According to the most recent Soviet era statistics dated 1989, they constituted 389 thousand while the figure released by the Georgian government in 2007 indicated 284 thousand. However, the National Assembly of Georgian Azerbaijanis claims that according to its “home-to-home based calculations,” there are more than 620 thousand ethnic Azeris in the country.

The Problem: The Georgian Language

Meanwhile, the Georgian State Minister on Diaspora Affairs Mr. Yulon Gagoshidze who is on an official visit to Azerbaijan has expressed his opinion on the issue. According to Anspress dated 5 March 2009, Mr. Gagoshidze has declared that both ethnic Azerbaijanis in Georgia and the Georgian population living in Azerbaijan “feel themselves well.”

He noted that the biggest problem Azerbaijanis face in Georgia was their inability to speak Georgian, and that the “relevant measures” were already underway to tackle the problem.

“The Azerbaijani Diaspora in Georgia is part of our country. Azerbaijanis have lived on their own soil since ages. I am personally familiar with Azerbaijani diaspora and I keep regular contact with them. Obviously, there are some problems, most important of which the language. The majority of Azerbaijanis in the country speaks Georgian poorly. Our Education Ministry is working on improving the level of Georgian taught in Azerbaijani schools in Georgia.” There are 228 Azerbaijani schools in Georgia.
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Georgia Introduces Tolerance Education

In a report signed by Nino Edilashvili, Georgia Business Week online news magazine reports that starting this year school curricula will include tolerance education; a new subject for Georgian students.

Save the Children, an international nongovernmental organization in partnership with Georgia’s National Curriculum and Assessment Centre (NCAC), unveiled the Children Tolerance Education Program (CTEP) on 3 February 2009.

The program consists of textbooks and teacher manuals for the 4th and 5th grades, and has already been successfully tested with more than 2,000 students throughout the country. After the successful pilot, it was decided to introduce the subject to schools countrywide.

According to the Program Director, the goal of the curriculum is to promote the values of tolerance, compassion, and cooperation, among students through the introduction of conflict transformation skills. Values critical to peace and democracy will also be fostered.

Financial support for the program is provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The Ambassador of Switzerland to Georgia and Armenia declared that the project was completed very successfully.

Like Switzerland

Like Switzerland, he said, the main wealth of Georgia is “education, education, and once again, education.” That was the main reason why Switzerland took interest in supporting the project. The second reason, he added, was the issue itself – tolerance, which according to him, is to “understand others, tolerate differences, and live peacefully with each other.”

Teachers trained in this curriculum see the positive difference the course makes in the children.

“In the lesson, schoolchildren feel free to debate and express their opinions openly; they learn new values and acquire important skills as the program teaches efficient methods for solving conflicts and dilemma,” Nino Ghongadze, a trained teacher, said. “This knowledge helps the children a lot in dealing with their everyday problems at school, as well as outside it.”

The Program Director also noted the program evaluation demonstrated a significant increase in children’s knowledge, attitudes, and skills of tolerance, negotiation, mediation, and cooperation.

“When I first heard the word tolerance, I did not know its meaning until the teacher explained,” Vakhtang Shvelidze, an 11-year-old student, said. “Since those days I have changed a lot and learned how to behave fairly; I learned that one shall not discriminate against the weaker.”
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