A TEXTBOOK CASE IN SOCIAL INTEGRATION
By David Matsaberidze

The Messenger, Georgia
Feb 20 2007

Some experts recommend that universities in ethnic minority populated
areas, such as this one in Marneuli, become bilingual

As part of its efforts to integrate Georgia’s large ethnic minorities
into the rest of society, the government is launching a new programme
to train non-ethnic Georgian teachers in predominantly Azeri Kvemo
Kartli to teach the Georgian language.

The non-Georgian teachers of Kvemo Kartli’s secondary schools will
receive special training designed mostly to target the ethnic Azeri
population of Georgia-the majority in the province. The courses will
be offered to teachers of Georgian language and literature in ethnic
Armenian and Azeri populated schools in Marneuli, Gardabani, Bolnisi
and Tsalka. They will also receive a special textbook called Tavtavi
to use as a resource.

Nearly 420 teachers will participate in the project, supported by the
Ministry of Education in collaboration with the High Commissioner of
Ethnic Minority’s Issues of the OSCE.

A representative from the press centre of the Ministry of Education
told The Messenger that Tavtavi, the new resource for teachers, is a
specially designed workbook for children in the first form. "Parts
of the book have already been distributed to some schools and have
been very well-received. It is considered a great success," she told
the paper.

Reforming textbooks for these areas is an important task, says
programme assistant to the research project History Teaching and
Representation of Ethnic Minorities in Georgia of the Swiss NGO
CIMERA, Lea Gerber. Gerber has been involved in the process of
reforming Georgian history books that she says minorities have
been completely left out of. She says this contributes to their
integration (or lack thereof) into mainstream Georgian society. "A
serious shortcoming existed in Georgia’s history textbooks when it
came to the representation of ethnic minorities that have been living
in Georgia for centuries. Their history is simply not mentioned in
the textbooks and therefore they do not have a sense of belonging
to Georgia. Therefore, the task of including ethnic minorities into
mainstream Georgian history requires special attention."

Khakha Gabunia, chairman of the Centre for Civic Integration and
Inter-ethnic Relations emphasizes the significance of the Georgian
language programme in contributing to ethnic minorities’ integration.

"I made submissions myself to the project, being one of the
coordinators. This project is very important and will play a
significant role in assisting the integration of minorities into
mainstream society. The project began in 2002. The first targeted
province was Samtskhe-Javakheti [an area predominantly populated
by ethnic Armenians], but in 2006, Kvemo Kartli was included in the
project. The Ministry of Education of Georgia is a great supporter of
projects that promote the teaching of Georgian as a secondary language
in schools that are instructing in languages other than Georgian,"
he says.

Gabunia says the teaching of Georgian is not an effort to assimilate
ethnic minorities in Georgia, "The project supports not only teaching
the state language of Georgia, but the teaching of the languages of the
ethnic minorities as well. The project is not an attempt to assimilate
various ethnic minorities of Georgia. On the contrary, it should be
seen as an invaluable contribution to the development of multiethnic
politics and the building of a multilingual society in Georgia."

Arnold Stepanian, head of the NGO For a Multinational Georgia, told
The Messenger that he has certain reservations about the proposal. "I
am in favour of the proposed multilingual programme. This is the only
real solution to develop the provinces of Kvemo Kartli and Javakheti.

But I have to admit there are some weaknesses in the project, making
me a bit sceptical about it. The local population has been too passive
while trying to implement the project. They must be more active. My
guess is that the project’s aims have not been effectively and properly
explained to the population."

Andrey Khanjin, project manager at the European Centre for Minority
Issues (ECMI), agrees that the people themselves must first be
convinced that it’s important to learn Georgian. "The majority of
the ethnic minority population do not know the state language and do
not show any real interest in learning it. In my opinion, first an
awareness raising campaign explaining the importance and advantages
of studying the state language of Georgia should be implemented and
then once they are ready, this programme should be implemented. But
we cannot force them to learn Georgian.

Khanjin believes the introduction of the Georgian language in these
areas should be a gradual process and not forced on them all at once.

"The language used in civil life in Javakheti is not Georgian. For
example, Armenians and Russians use either Russian or Armenian to
communicate. I think it would be a good idea to legalise the use
of their language [in official bodies] for some period, for example
Russian or Armenian, in Javakheti. And at the same time, the teaching
of Georgian should be facilitated as well. The languages of ethnic
minorities should not be endangered. A special document protecting the
minorities’ use of their mother tongue is important," explains Khanjin.

Another challenge for ethnic minorities is acquiring a higher
education. Not knowing Georgian is their obstacle, Khanjin says.

"This creates a brain drain of the most bright and talented young
people [form ethnic minorities] who leave Georgia to study and pursue
a career in either Armenia or Russia [if they are ethnic Armenians].

A special language course should be taught to those who want to
study at Georgian universities. A short-term solution could be the
establishment of a bilingual university in Akhalkalaki [district
centre of Samtskhe-Javakheti] where some lectures will be delivered
in Russian and others in Georgian."