The education policy of the First Democratic Republic of Georgia, published in the Georgian party press of 1918-1921

Abstract

We present the education policy of the years of the first Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) by observing the main newspapers of the mentioned period ( "Ertoba", "Sakhalkho Sakme", "Sakartvelo", "Sakartvelos Republika").  As you know, the young democratic republic faced many problems. Addressing the issue of nationalization was largely based on a fundamental transformation of the education system. The return of the native language, first of all, required the Georgianization of the educational program, which, in turn, required both material and intellectual resources. Membership of a large European family was associated with the revival of science in Georgia. The issue of Georgia's territorial integrity was also directly related to public education. Accordingly, the education policy of the Sovereign Republic had to be considered in different contexts. Although not a single work has been devoted to the life of Georgia during the years of independence, they are mainly of a historiographical nature. Our research, in particular, focuses on the specifics of the education policy presented in the media, and in-depth research of the issue in this regard is the main task. Based on the theories of media effects, in particular agenda setting and framing, we have outlined the role of the media in leading to a highly contradictory path to education reform. It turned out that the formation of an education system in the Georgian multi-party press was one of the priority issues and different parties pursued a uniform policy on this issue. The media message was as follows: we would connect Europe with the development of science, and we would become a member of the European family only if we were a full-fledged nation. The framework of these messages is defined by the spatial orientation of Georgia - Georgia, not through Russia, but should be directly connected to Europe.