It’s been called a cross between the Peace Corps and Teach for America, and is a “groundbreaking” educational initiative being undertaken by the Georgian government that is turning the heads of educators and policymakers alike.  It is called “Teach and Learn with Georgia,” a program started in fall 2010 with one ambitious goal: to “spur a linguistic revolution” by attracting Americans, Canadians, and other English-speaking nationals to the small nation in the Caucasus and transform the youth of this historically Moscow-orbiting state into Westward-leaning English speakers. 

In a state where much of the older generation readily speaks Russian and where historical ties with Russia are deeply embedded (comrade Stalin was born in Gori), Georgia has been at the recent forefront of the post-Soviet backlash in large part due to its emphatic leader Mikheil Saakashvili.  After leading the bloodless “Rose” Revolution that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003, Saakashvili assumed the presidency the following year on a pro-Western platform aimed at breaking free of the Kremlin’s influence.  A Columbia Law School alumnus, Saakashvili is a fluent English speaker, and his bid to join the U.S. led NATO defense alliance was largely seen as and a contributing factor in the 2008 war with Russia. 

Despite this setback, the Georgian government has taken the fight to a new front by attacking an area of particular sensitivity: language.  “Our response to the Russian aggression is more reform, more education,” stated Minister of Education and Science Dmitri Shashkini in a September segment on Al-Jazeera English.  “We don’t have much oil, we don’t have natural gas.  What we have is the intellectual potential of our country.”

Teach and Learn with Georgia has attracted nearly 1,000 English speakers from all backgrounds and placed them in schools throughout the country, some in urban Tbilisi or Kutaisi, and others in rural villages where hot water and heated classrooms are a luxury.  Teachers are given rent-free accommodations with a host family and are paid a $275 monthly stipend, a wage often exceeding that of professional Georgian teachers.  Many teachers act dually as cultural attachés, extending themselves beyond the classroom to create English clubs and offering English lessons for parents and working adults. 

For all of its pedagogical potential, Teach and Learn with Georgia has highlighted several institutional flaws within the Georgian education system.  In a January 23 New York Times article recalling the experiences of three American teachers, all acknowledged a significant gap in expectations between their Georgian colleagues over student performance as well as a woeful shortage of educational resources.  Rhonda Gibson, aged 24 from New Orleans, said, “The use of a printer is nonexistent; if copies are needed, students must pay. And visual aids — well, only if the teachers want to carry their laptops to school every day”  More telling are the words of James Norton, aged 23 from Boulder, CO, saying, “It’s like buying an espresso machine before you’ve built a kitchen. There are so many obstacles preventing this cadre of foreign teachers from doing their jobs effectively, and I often wonder whether the government would be better off focusing on fundamentals first — buying books for all students, training teachers in modern techniques (as opposed to the translation-and-memorization doctrine that is currently rampant), paying Georgian teachers a living wage, better accountability metrics, etc.”

Despite such acknowledgments, the Teach and Learn with Georgia program has generally received positive views from volunteers, many who become quite attached to their students and Georgian culture.  The Ministry of Education hopes to expand the English program by another 500 volunteers entering the fall 2011 school year, and has since extended the program to small numbers of Italian and German language volunteers.  The Georgian government has certainly taken the initiative in reversing centuries of Russian domination through this education policy, but only time will tell of the program's success and long term sustainability.

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