“I, as an ordinary teacher, face problems in my everyday life and daily work. I don’t have even the most basic resources to make my lessons more engaging, and you’re talking to me about reaching some ‘summits’? Excuse me, but I don’t believe it,” says Tamuna Macharashvili, a civic education teacher.
Batumelebi spoke with the teacher about the school reform announced by Georgian Dream, which envisages the abolition of the 12th grade.
Ms. Tamuna, what is your opinion on abolishing the 12th grade and on the changes Georgian Dream plans for schools and universities?
I would assess these changes as hasty decisions. This reform has a strong political undertone. If their education reform is truly driven by a national idea and state interests, why wasn’t it implemented earlier? What were we waiting for? Over these years, it would have been possible to achieve valuable results already.
Instead, this seems designed to further subjugate and control society.
Do you think they want to establish full control over schools and universities?
At the very least, that is the impression I’m left with.
In general, there are many problems in schools. Today’s school has essentially lost its function. It has become more of a space for social interaction than a place for receiving education. This is nothing new and it’s not the problem of a single school it’s a nationwide problem. The quality of education, particularly school education, in this country is very low.
As a result, when students transition from school to university, they are not prepared to receive higher education because they lack the necessary foundation.
What prevents the creation of quality education?
The lack of quality is the fault of the system. The reforms that have been implemented or are being implemented are inconsistent. They start something, teachers attend trainings, we prepare, we are involved in implementing the reform and suddenly, without any research or analysis of results, we’re told that the reform has failed and didn’t work, and we begin yet another reform. This is the result of an inconsistent education policy.
So, does that mean these 13 years have been a series of unfinished and ineffective reforms?
Yes. I, as a teacher involved in school processes and initially highly motivated to work in this profession, have now lost that motivation because I do not see the purpose of these reforms or any real results.
Financial resources are wasted, human resources are wasted, teachers’ motivation is lost, and what we’ve ended up with are burned-out teachers who, in many cases, are seen by the authorities as a convenient source of election votes. This further undermines the authority of teachers, as schools have never been freed from political pressure.
Every government tries to keep teachers and the education system under its control.
Is the low level of teachers’ political engagement today including around school reform a result of the government making them vulnerable, or do you see other reasons as well?
Based on what we can observe at this stage, this is the result of control. The goal of these reforms is even more control and deeper subjugation. If we already control them, let’s control them even more that seems to be the principle. Teachers and education professionals shape the future generation, and if the school serves the regime, then the government can achieve its goals.
At the same time, all this is wrapped in rhetoric like: “We want to develop schools, increase salaries, create employment opportunities.” They give it a patriotic façade. But these are purely populist and superficial statements, because today schools haven’t even solved their most basic problems. Many schools don’t even have janitors. There is no infrastructure and yet you promise us to reach some summit? First, you should explain how we are even going to start climbing.
Schools have been under construction for years and still aren’t completed. Children are scattered across different schools, and proper conditions cannot be created for them. Some children are still studying online because there is no school building. These issues haven’t been resolved for years, and now we’re being promised some “ideal future” and prospects that are, in fact, unimaginable when even basic problems remain unsolved.
I, an ordinary teacher, face difficulties in my everyday work. I don’t have even the basic tools to make my lessons more engaging and you’re talking to me about summits? Excuse me, but I don’t believe it.
The goal of this reform is not to create a better education system or a more educated generation. The goal is to better control the education system and place it in the service of the regime.
Since independence, Georgia has produced a generation educated in the West and shaped by progressive thinking. It’s clear that Georgian Dream has shifted the country’s course toward Russia while blocking Georgia’s European path. Do you think this reform also serves the purpose of raising a submissive generation in a closed environment, stripped of the ability to resist?
That’s how it looks. Even today, many students want to continue their education at Western universities and are deeply concerned about what is happening in the country. Limiting and narrowing these opportunities, in my view, is an act of hostility by the state.
Why should you restrict your own youth, your own citizens, from accessing education? On the contrary, they should absolutely receive education abroad, because better systems exist there. You should create the conditions and opportunities for them to return to their country and contribute to its development.
If we logically connect all of this, their goal becomes clear: to isolate Georgian youth from critical and free environments. Not to show them what freedom means just like in the Soviet Union, right? A closed generation that was made to believe that only the Soviet Union and Soviet people were happy.
Back then, people were fed anti-Western propaganda as well.
Yes. That’s probably the kind of generation they want. However, they will need to put in enormous effort to achieve this, because the students I teach will not swallow or believe these lies. They cannot be silenced or stopped so easily. It will take a very long time to shape Georgian youth and children into the mindset the authorities desire.
That’s why I believe this reform, too, will end up as yet another failed attempt to subjugate Georgian society.