AKHALKALAK, Georgia–The Georgian authorities are etching away at the rights of the country’s large Armenia monitory in Javakhk to learn its native tongue in school, warned the co-chair of the Vairq Party, David Rstakian.
Rstakian said that per Georgian law, no schools can be national ethnic schools, while schools in Javakhk that were once Armenian schools are now being converted into Georgian state schools, where Armenian language courses are either being removed from the curriculum or being slowly supplanted by Georgian language classes.
“Schools are providing Georgian language classes at the expense of Armenian language classes,” Rstakian said, adding that the authorities seek to Georgianize the Armenians of Javakhk.
“Before, Armenian language classes at the elementary school were 8 hours a week with 3 hours being allotted for the Georgian language. Now However, the classes are balanced and the curriculum is becoming bilingual at the expense of the Armenian language,” he added.
Unfortunately, he noted, these issues are not dealt with the elected civil authorities in Javakhk, but rather the countries powerful national security apparatus.
Asbarez
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