Untitled

saxelmwifo enis swavlebis sakiTxebi:
problemebi da gamowvevebi
Issues of State Language Teaching;
Problems and Challenges
CIMERA: Director and education specialist
“Multilingual education project” in Central Asia, 2001-2004
Multilingual Education and the Rights of the Child
ABSTRACT
Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child state, that every child has the right to access
to relevant quality education, which supports the development of his or her full potential, without
any discrimination on basis of ethnic, linguistic or other affiliation.
This paper/presentation will explore the consequences for the State obligations in education with regard
to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, with a special focus on these two articles. It will explore the
psycholinguistic development of the child in different linguistic situations in education, and will discuss
the potentials of forms of multilingual education for the realisation of the rights of the child in education
in a multiethnic and multilinguistic state.
The presentation will thus focus upon the importance of a linguistically sensitive system of education for
the individual, and at the same time touch upon the relevance of the realisation of the rights of each individual
for the emergence of a functioning and peaceful democratic society.
INTRODUCTION
This paper reflects the State obligations in language education with regard to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, with a special focus on articles 28 and 29. These two articles state that every child has the
right to access to relevant quality education which supports the development of his or her full potential, without
discrimination on basis of ethnic, linguistic or other affiliation. The paper explores the psycholinguistic
development of the child in different educational settings, and discusses the potentials of multilingual education
for the realisation of the rights of the child in a multiethnic and multilingual state.
Prevailing model of language education: monolingual education
In post-Soviet countries, there are traditionally two possibilities for a child to receive education within the
State system: Either it attends a school with its mother tongue as language of instruction - other languages (including
the State language, if the mother tongue is not the State language) are taught as subjects with second
or foreign language teaching methodologies; or it undergoes schooling in a language other than its mother
tongue, for example children from linguistic minorities attending education with Georgian as language of instruction
in Georgia. In which class a child will be educated, is determined by the parents. However there are
specific differences in the qualifications each child bears, depending on its mother tongue, and in the specific
needs in terms of pedagogical and methodological support it needs in various settings of language education.
These differences are usually not taken into account in a sufficient way in the educational process.
Since the determination of identity in this part of the world is largely based on ethnic belonging rather
than citizenship, the languages, too, are closely associated with ethnic identity rather than other factors. Therefore,
for example Azeri being associated as being the "language of the Azeri" or Armenian being the "language
of the Armenians" etc., classes with these languages of instruction are attended mainly by representatives
of these ethnic groups. This means that representatives of various ethnic groups are educated separately,
in some countries even with different curricula, although they live next to each other. In addition to that these
various ways of education provide the children with unequal possibilities in life and create a divided society
with a high potential for conflict.
Although the State languages are taught in all classes as a subject, the results of these language lessons
for children speaking a minority language are usually not satisfying. In traditional language lessons the main
stress is on grammar and formal aspects of language. This means that children learn language in an analytical,
grammar-based, rather than a communicative way, although at the age of 6-9 they are psychologically not
237