History & The Caucasus Region - Language Policy as a Tool of Sociocultural Assimiliation

In the multi-ethnic and multilingual communities of the Caucasus (as elsewhere, of course) the issue of language and education has been a central issue. It concerns the knowledge of the state languages as well as the regional/minority languages.

Throughout the Soviet period and also later the educational systems offered a choice of language of instruction at different levels. Even in Soviet times, major languages, such as Georgian, were found from pre-school level to PhD studies in parallel to systems with instruction in Russian. Various other models have been found, ranging from a few hours of instruction in minority/regional languages to ten years' of instruction in a specific language. A common model has been to use the minority language as the language of instruction during the first four years of primary school, followed by Russian language in higher grades (Gvantseladze).

The knowledge of languages has sometimes been thought of as a sort of "linguistic capital"; something that is of value in society. It is thus up to the parents to make the best "linguistic investment" for their children. In the Soviet period, the choice of Russian was seen as granting access to better jobs and offering richer possibilities for the children in the future. In more recent years we have witnessed a rapid change of "values" of languages, especially in South Caucasus, resulting in changes in goals and structure of the education system.

The following video is illustrative of one of the numerous international projects, targeting the lack of knowledge of the state language in Southern Georgia (map Diversity.ge) In this OSCE project Armenian-speaking pupils from Javakheti spend a period in Georgian families and go to schools in Ajara.

Part II: Speaking the Same Language:

Recommended Literature:

Conflict Potential Related to the Problems of Language and Education in Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli Province. Policy paper. 2006 Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD). http://www.css.ethz.ch/content/specialinterest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/en/services/digital-library/publications/publication.html/34149

Gvantseladze, T. Functioning of the Abkhazian Language in Education, Spekali, 2, http://www.spekali.tsu.ge/index.php/en/article/viewArticle/2/20/

Isaxanli, H., Rust, V. et.al. Minority Education Policy in Azerbaijan and Iran. http://www.hisaxanli.org/pdf/Minority_Education_Policy.pdf (about Azerbaijan, pp 111-154)