The "New York Times" has dedicated a special article to foreign educators
The newspaper "New York Times" has published a comprehensive article dedicated to the project "Teach and Learn with Georgia", implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science.
In the article titled "Fighting Russia Again, This Time with Words", the American journalist writes that the initiative to bring English-speaking teachers to Georgia belongs to Georgia's purposeful president holding Western values, Mr. Mikheil Saakashvili, who is himself fluent in English and studied law at Columbia University. Since the events of 2003, upon becoming president, he has been striving to liberate Georgia from Moscow's influence and connect it with the USA. Therefore, the Georgian government has attracted one thousand English-speaking teachers and will bring in another five hundred by September, aiming for every school in Georgia to have one English-speaking teacher.
The journalist recalls the period of the USSR, when the communists attempted to bring widely separated countries under a single pressure through the Russian language: "They demanded that the Russian language be the second state language, often the first. This was the case from Estonia to Uzbekistan... But two decades ago, when the Soviet Union collapsed, many former Soviet republics restored their native language and rejected the Russian language in order to strengthen their independence and national identity," writes the author, concluding that the Kremlin acutely perceives the status of the Russian language as a symbol of its influence.
The journalist believes that changes in Georgia are noticeable. Admittedly, Georgians over the age of 40 speak Russian fluently, but under the governance of Mr. Mikheil Saakashvili, they are interested in English. Therefore, the government is trying to accelerate this process.
The newspaper "New York Times" acquaints its readers with the position of the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Dimitri Shashkin, who stated that in Georgia, whose population is only 4.6 million, economic progress is possible only through the transformation and improvement of the education system. The primary goal of these innovations is for every child in Georgia to know the English language: "Georgia has no natural gas or oil. The only resource we have is our intellectual potential. Therefore, we must fully utilize this potential to the best of our ability," stated Mr. Shashkin, who explains in the interview that the Georgian government is not against teaching the Russian language; on the contrary, it is in favor of Russian being an elective foreign language, like German or French. In general, only English is mandatory.
Dimitri Shashkin notes that teachers coming from the USA, Canada, and other English-speaking countries are also cultural ambassadors. Furthermore, they not only teach English to children but also assist local English-language teachers, establish English language clubs, and interact with parents. The English-speaking teachers themselves state that they have been encouraged by the fact that their efforts to teach the English language have received great support in Georgia.
The article emphasizes that the Georgian government has familiarized itself with English language teaching methodologies worldwide, including in South Korea. It works with the Vancouver-based organization "Footprints Recruiting", which has extensive experience in sourcing English-speaking teachers globally.
The American journalist, who personally met the foreign teachers in Georgia, also conveys their emotions in the article: "I cannot put into words how enthusiastically the children greeted me," _ writes 23-year-old Meg Bell from Dallas, _ "My fellow teachers experienced the same thing when they first entered the classroom. This Beatlemania-like hysteria lasted for almost a whole week. The children asked me to sign autographs on their hands."
Deborah Cruz, who worked during the autumn semester in the Black Sea coastal city of Batumi, recalls that when she started working, the children seemed sad. Their former English language teachers had never used a conversational method: "When I left the school, they were speaking English at school, and the teachers were amazed at the transformation they saw. This will continue even when I am no longer here. For me, this is the most important thing _ this is not temporary," states Deborah Cruz.
