GEORGIA’S NEW EDUCATIONAL LAW

Do Javakhk’s Demographic Changes Stand Behind?

Azg/am
22 Oct 04

Dali Aghdgomeladze is a teacher of Georgian in one of Akhalkalak’s
schools. She speaks Armenian brilliantly. I asked her whether
Georgian is ignored in Javakhk. “Some people try to picture it like
that but there is no ignorancein fact. Everything hangs on parents and
families. When parents explain children that they should learn
English, Georgian, they do so”, Dali said.

Georgian language has been a school subject in the schools of Javakhk
since the Soviet times but only 1 out of 100 school graduates knew
Georgian letters. Though Georgia’s new authorities make efforts to
teach Georgian to Armenians of Javakhk there is hardly any progress
today. There were cases when teachers sent from Tbilisi to remote
villages of Javakhk learnt Armenian but none of pupils learnt
Georgian.

But Georgia’s “rose” leaders never give up. A draft law on “Public
Education of Georgia” is to be discussed in the parliament in near
future. “81 per cent of Javakhk’s population is acquainted with the
coming changes and support reforms”, Haravayin Darpas, Javakhk’s
Armenian newspaper quoted education minister Kakha Lomaya as
saying. “Those who understand the meaning and purpose of the reforms
support the project. But there are also people opposing it. Those are
the corrupted directors of schools”, Lomaya said.

The draft law was not welcomed in Javakhk and in Azeri populated Kvemo
Kartli. “We are against this project, as well as Azeris”, Levon
Levanian, representative of Georgia’s ombudsman to Akhalkalak and
Ninotsminda, said. He said that law’s 3d article’s 5th and 6th points
are the most worrying.

The 5th point reads: “Georgian is the teaching language in all
educational establishments. Abkhaz language together with Georgian is
the teaching language of Abkhazia”. The 6th point reads: “If the
language of an educational establishment does not correspond to the
mother tongue of a pupil, the guardians’ board may include programs of
teaching pupil’s mother tongue or else subjects in the mother tongue
but only within the frames of the current financial support of the
state”.

In case the law is passed, all subjects at the schools of Javakhk will
be taught in Georgian except for Armenian language and literature. 99
per centof teachers of Javakhk’s schools do not know Georgian, and one
can hardly fancy an Armenian teacher explaining to Armenian pupils
Mendeleyev’s law in Georgian.

People think in Akhalkalak that the new educational law has a
far-reaching aim of shifting the region’s demography. Head of Virk
Party Davit Rstakian says: “The state pays 500 lari ($270) those who
will come to teach in Georgian. There is a guileful aim behind the
law: an attempt to change Javakhk=80=99s demographic picture. As soon
as the law is passed, hundreds of teachers will come to the region
with their families and Armenian teachers will drop out of the
schools”.

“Georgians always note that Georgia is in the 2d place with number of
Armenian schools after Armenia. That’s true but that is not due to
Georgians but comes from Armenians habit of living in communities. The
fact that Armenians inhabit whole regions has been disturbing all
Georgian governments since 1918. They made every effort to bar the
Armenians. They succeeded in Akhaltskha”, Rstakian says.

Levanian is also concerned but is suspicious whether Georgians will
stand Javakhk’s winter. “Even if they inhabit region with Georgians
they will hardly stay here. It’s awfully cold here. The government has
already sent few dozens of teachers this year, we’ll see if they will
stand the cold or not”, he says.

A branch of Georgia’s state university opened in Akhalkalak 3
yearsago. “They teach only in Georgian at the university and 100-150
students come tostudy from all over Georgia annually. The state
provides good conditions for them. The state attempts to change
demography of Javakhk artificially. The university will release
semi-educated Armenians, because they don’t know Georgian, and
well-educated Georgians. The latter ones will settle in Javakhk for
5-6 years for their studies, will occupy positions and eventually stay
here”, a resident of Akhalkalak, Vartan Hakobian, says.

Artur Yeremian, head of Akhalkalak Region’s Administration, noticesno
sign of Javakhk’s demographic shift. “We know from the experience that
only Armenians can endure Javakhk’s conditions”, he says reminding
that in 1989 newly inhabited Georgians could stand only one winter and
soon left, leaving the houses especially made for them.

By Tatoul Hakobian