The FINANCIAL — Russian has started becoming popular again, ever since the new government promised to restore economic, cultural and political relations with its previously-hostile neighbour.
From the middle of the academic semester two new Russian language classes have become available at Tbilisi School #116. Trainings of Russian language specialists have started at ‘Teachers’ House’. But officially, according to the Ministry of Education, teaching of the Russian language in public schools is still restricted.
“Last year we requested permission to offer two Russian classes, since there was great demand from parents. We applied to the Ministry of Science and Education although Minister Dmitri Shashkin categorically warned us not to open new classes for first-formers. He had to deliver this declination to parents as the decision was made by the board of the school, not the Ministry. The only thing we managed to do was to appoint a Russian teacher for these classes and added the Russian language to our school syllabus,” Dmitri Mechurchlishvili, Director of public school #116, told The FINANCIAL. Mechurchlishvili was appointed to this position in 2007.
“After the 1 October elections we applied to the Ministry again and they told us that it was up to us to open Russian language classes for first-formers. We transformed the existing two classes into Russian from the second semester of the 2012-13 academic year,” said Mechurchlishvili.
“As a school we have the second largest number of Russian-speaking pupils in Tbilisi. In total we have 1,218 pupils,” Mechurchlishvili said.
In July 2011, the Georgian authorities reportedly decided to purge Russian from the country’s educational system as it was planned for all Russian-speaking schools to be shut down.
Before 1991, Russian was a prevalent language in Georgia. Due to new educational policy however, Russian language courses became available only as a form of elective study. In order to switch over to a new, English curriculum, Georgia flew in 1,000 native English speakers in a programme similar to ‘Teach for America’. Teachers were paid a monthly stipend of USD 275 and lived rent free with Georgian host families.
The new school year in Georgia was predicted to bring considerable changes to the educational process in the 2012-2013 academic year. The following parliamentary elections on 1 October however, that brought a victory to billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and his coalition Georgian Dream and promised to restore relations with Russia, changed the situation.
There are Russian departments in 66 schools in Georgia. Twenty-six are in Tbilisi and the rest are in the regions. The number of pupils studying in these Russian departments at present is 14,019, out of which 6,593 are in Tbilisi and the rest in the country’s regions.
“The Ministry of Science and Education has not formally restored any Russian school or department,” officials from the Ministry of Science and Education said.
According to Mechurchlishvili, the Russian department at his school was never abolished. Restrictions were just applied to first-formers in regard to studying the language. “There are 30 first-formers in our Russian department. The good thing about our school is that we never fired any of our Russian language teachers and have therefore maintained highly qualified staff in this field. The importance of maintaining the existing Russian departments lies in the fact that Georgians returning from Russia, Ukraine, or even from the regions of Tskhinvali or Abkhazia, do not necessarily know Georgian and therefore will otherwise face a problem of having to directly switch to the Georgian language. Accordingly, it is good for the integration process. I do not think that it was right to close down Russian schools or departments artificially,” he said.
Tina Gogeliani, Expert and Project Coordinator at the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation, also thinks that the previous government’s initiative to close down Russian schools was not the right decision. “They should have reduced the number instead of closing them down entirely,” she said.
“Studying the Russian language at schools should be possible. As for English, it should be obligatory. Not knowing English will prove a serious disadvantage for youngsters and make them less competitive in later life,” Gogeliani said.
“We are not against the Russian language,” Saakashvili said in April 2011. “If Russian were to become the universal language for communication, if the Chinese, Norwegians and Americans all needed Russian to succeed in life, we would have to study it as well.”
He also said that when choosing a foreign language as a subject for their exams, 70 percent of this year’s graduates chose English, and only 10 percent chose Russian. The year before, Russian and English got 40 percent each, he noted.
According to Gogeliani, it is very important for ethnic minorities to receive secondary education in Georgian in order to fully integrate with society.
“The Georgian Government tries to support the interests of ethnic minorities in various areas, one of which is access to education. The Ministry of Science and Education does not plan to restore Russian departments at universities. Russian programmes do currently exist at various universities: such as the technical and aviation universities,” officials stated.
“As Georgia is a multiethnic country, the Government carries the responsibility to take into account the interests of any ethnic minority. In order to overcome the language barrier for promoting the Georgian language, the Ministry is promoting two projects: Georgian Language for Future Success and Georgian as a Second Language. Georgian language textbooks, along with audio and video materials divided into levels, have been created specifically for ethnic minorities,” they explained.
Yulia Nemtsova, 45, is a mother of two pupils. She said that when she heard about the previous government’s decision to close down Russian schools and school departments, she was concerned. “I have a totally Russian-speaking family, which my children grew up in, so the prospect of changing our language was daunting for me, I was not sure we could handle it. I later realized however that there was an upshot to it all. We were not planning to move to Russia. So, if I wanted my children to grow up assimilated with Georgian society and find a job here, then being a fluent Georgian speaker was important.”
“Everyone has the right to make their own choices, but to be honest, the fact that I have lived in Georgia for almost half a century and hardly understand the language is not right,” Nemtsova told The FINANCIAL.
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