Georgia is a country proud of its tradition of inter-ethnic tolerance. Some 16% of the country’s population are ethnic minorities, mostly Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and government policy stresses the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural character of the Georgian state. According to Census 2014, Most of Georgia’s minorities live in rural, monoethnic settlements isolated from the rest of Georgian society, most obviously by language: 74% of native Azerbaijani speakers and 51% of native Armenian speakers do not speak Georgian fluently, which contributes to barriers existing for ethnic minorities in various aspects of public life, including public perception towards them.
The lack of state language knowledge is the critical challenge. Some 64% of minority 7th graders are unable to pass the minimum threshold of achievement in Georgian as a Second Language subject, and only 12% achieve the high level. Writing is the most challenging competence, with a 78% failure rate. Language competences are significantly worse in rural schools – 82% of rural schoolchildren score below the minimum threshold, while only 30% from urban schools do so. Azerbaijani-speaking students are worst-off with 87% of students failing the tests, while this indicator is 60% for Armenian-speaking students (and only 23% for Russian-speaking students). These sector-specific differences stand even when controlling for rural/urban disparities.
Students of non-Georgian schools/sectors – predominantly Armenian and Azerbaijani students – consistently score lower on average compared to ethnic Georgians in standardized national and international testing, such as school graduation and university entrance exams, as well as PISA reading, science and maths tests. These differences are only partly attributed to socio-economic status.
This language barrier contributes to the prejudice that exists among Georgian population towards ethnic minorities who do not speak Georgian fluently. Many express the opinion that ethnic minorities choose to not learn Georgian and the fact that they don’t speak the state language is a ‘disrespect of the state language’. When asking what issues ethnic minorities face in Georgia, the most frequent response is ‘the lack of knowledge of Georgian language’ (38%), while second most frequent response is ‘they face no issues’ (26%). The Caucasus Research Resource Center in its survey report for the Council of Europe states that “the data suggests that ethnic Georgians show less empathy when thinking about the minority problems in Georgia: almost three times as many ethnic Georgians report there are no issues for ethnic minorities in Georgia (29%) compared to other ethnic groups.” Moreover, 38% of Georgia’s population also thinks that religious minorities in Georgia do not face any significant issues, representing the most frequent response to this question.
The data consistently shows that around quarter of Georgia’s population has negative attitudes towards ethnic minorities living in Georgia,
For instance, 44% of Georgian population disapproves of providing government services in ethnic minority languages as well as Georgian and 29% agrees that only ethnic Georgian should be allowed to be Georgian citizens, according to a study conducted in 2020.
Moreover, over fifth of Georgia’s population disapproves of doing business with Azerbaijanis living in Georgia, and over quarter – with Armenians living in Georgia.
Reference: CRRC Caucasus Barometer
In addition, a quarter of Georgia’s population believes that protection of the rights of ethnic minorities s unimportant or is neutral towards the issue.
Reference: NDI Public Attitudes in Georgia (CRRC)
Moreover, 35% and 44% believe that ethnic and religious diversity are negative, respectively, while 36% think that diversity in general is negative. The main reason for the negative attitude is that ‘diversity threatens the main culture and traditions’.
“The way of thinking and opinions, that are seen also in the results of the Caucasus Barometer survey is the result of narrow ethnonationalist education policy which informs us only about one ethnic and one religious group,” – explains Kamran Mamedli, Researcher at the Social Justice Center – “In general, when planning the education policy, the component of ethnic minorities is not taken into account, and are an afterthought. A good example is when they abolished the compulsory nature of general skills exams [of university entrance exams] and only later they realized that for 1+4 program to work, the general skills exams had to be compulsory as it can be taken in minority languages as well. So, in the end, they made the exam compulsory for minorities but elective for Georgian speakers.”
In reality, of course, ethnic minorities face multiple challenges, some are the same as faced by many other in Georgia, such as economic instability and poor school infrastructure, for instance, but some challenges are specific to the minorities, including unequal access to education, the resulting public prejudice and limited access to participation in in public structure and institutions, as well as public life.
Especially in monoethnic settlements, schools are often the only place where students can learn Georgian. However, the level of state language knowledge suffers among teachers of non-Georgian language schools too. The Georgian government has been working on improving the level of state language teaching in non-Georgian schools since the late 2000s, most prominent and hands-on approach being sending bilingual teaching assistants and teacher consultants to non-Georgian schools to aid local teachers and/or teach themselves. However, the results of these efforts have been mixed.
“If you go there [in communities of ethnic minorities] you will see how eager these people are for their grandchildren to learn Georgian [language], how many teachers there are in the regions who are competent [in Georgian language]. But there are some missionary teachers who repeat the same narrative, that [ethnic minorities] don’t have any problems, that ‘you do not study Georgian deliberately’. Also, there are elderly teachers who might be teachers of Georgian but do not speak it.” – elaborates Kamran Mamedli, Researcher at the Social Justice Center.
Moreover, a ‘1+4 program’ allowing ethnic minorities to study Georgian the first year at university, followed by four years of bachelor studies in Georgian. Minorities are also eligible to pass general skills at the university entrance exams in their native language. In addition, the government has introduced bilingual teaching model for schools, however, existing bilingual textbooks fall short of quality in terms of translation and compatibility with latest curriculum. Because of these many have to study with the handbooks imported from Azerbaijan and Armenia. We wrote about these issues and related pitfalls in more detail in our article and policy paper. The resulting language barrier deters ethnic minority representatives of Georgia to look to Baku or Yerevan (or to Russia) rather than Tbilisi for opportunities for work and study.
State language knowledge seems to be playing an important role in shaping Georgian society’s attitude towards its own citizens. It also limits minorities’ participation in public structures and institutions, as well as public life. Therefore, strategic, effortful and goal-oriented steps need to be taken by the government, to ensure minorities’ access to quality and equal education.
