All first to eighth graders in eight schools of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Akhalgori district, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Georgians, will now be forced to study in a Russian-language curriculum, the NGO Democracy Research Institute (DRI) says.
DRI states that since 2017, by the decision of the de facto Tskhinvali government, Russian has step-by-step replaced Georgian in all schools of Akhalgori.
At this rate, in about three years, Russia will fully replace Georgian in the schools,” DRI says.
DRI has called for the usage of all levers to stop the illegal process which violates fundamental human rights.
Russian has already fully replaced Georgian in all schools of the Russian-occupied Gali district, which is also inhabited by ethnic Georgians.
Tbilisi has strongly condemned the move and urged the international community to respond to the ‘grave violation of human rights and international law.’
The Tskhinvali and Abkhazia regions of Georgia, which comprise 20 per cent of the country’s territory, are currently occupied by Russia.