Education is a multifaceted process of learning, upbringing, the acquisition of knowledge, and the formation of character, mind, and personality as a whole. The priorities of education lie in shaping a person's character and fostering their general cultural development. This is an axiom with which not only specialists but any reasonable person would agree. Yet Abkhazia's education system apparently holds a different view — doing everything in its power to restrain the development of education in the republic. Take, for instance, one of the recent statements by Abkhazia's Minister of Education and Language Policy, Inal Gablia, in which he proposes using ready-made video lessons from the internet for teaching purposes. "If a teacher has no opportunity to conduct online lessons, they can record their own audio or video lesson. If that is also not possible, we have proposed using ready-made video lessons from the internet. For example, there is Yandex School, and there is the electronic school that our Russian colleagues sent us," Gablia stated.

All well and good — except that the young head of the Ministry of Education has apparently completely forgotten that in the majority of the republic's schools, primary classes are taught in the Abkhazian language. Moreover, without having ensured access to online education for all students in Abkhazia, is it really possible to propose video lessons based on an entirely different education system?

Problems with learning — for both secondary school pupils and those receiving vocational or higher education — began with the appearance of COVID-19 in the republic. And while Abkhazian medicine rolled up its sleeves and set about fighting the epidemic, the country's main educational authority idled, alternately canceling and briefly resuming classes. In the end, last academic year — like the new one — ended before it had properly begun.

If you ask how things stand now, I can say with certainty that online education in Abkhazia has been accessible only to children from well-off families. Residents of villages in the most economically depressed districts — Tkuarchal, Ochamchyra, and Gali — cannot afford the luxury of purchasing tablets with which their children could attend online lessons. Families living below the poverty line do not always have the means to buy necessary food and feed their children, let alone relatively expensive gadgets. And what does the state do? Nothing. Citing the difficult financial situation, officials are suppressing this issue as best they can, unwilling to take any steps to address the difficult position of students.

International organizations, on the other hand — which have for a long time been providing Abkhazia and its residents with various kinds of medical and food assistance — have paid attention to the problems of the education system. The Sukhumi office of UNICEF proposed to the republic's Ministry of Education a joint project to develop an Abkhazian online platform for remote schooling. For now, the new platform is being proposed for piloting only in the capital's schools. A worthy and good initiative, is it not? But politics intervened in this benevolent endeavor — and parents, driven to despair by their own state, together with teachers who found themselves without a role, rushed to accuse the organization of aggressive outside interference. The main argument heard from the interested parties: "the official policy of this organization is to recognize the territorial integrity of Georgia, and we cannot rule out that all information about our children, about an entire generation, will leak across the Inguri."

In fairness, it must be said that this view is not universally shared in Abkhazia. In one Telegram channel, a user under the handle Asta Mur accused those spreading this view about the international organization and the platform they plan to create to assist Abkhazia's education system of "brainwashing." "Why sink to such blatant nastiness? Don't hype up the subject by insulting respectable people," wrote Asta Mur.

In the meantime, all this confusion prompted parents of Abkhazian schoolchildren to create an organization called the "National Parents' Committee of Abkhazia." It is difficult to say exactly how this body plans to operate — but their first step was to submit an appeal to President Aslan Bzhania proposing a return to traditional in-person schooling so as to prevent "critical falling behind on the curriculum." And they launched a nationwide signature drive to this effect.

Right on cue came UNICEF's appeal to governments, calling on them to make the reopening of schools a priority and to take all necessary measures to make classrooms as safe as possible. "UNICEF warns that children's learning and well-being continue to suffer as the number of children affected by school closures grows," reads a statement published on the organization's official website.

In Abkhazia, schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic — and remote learning failed to materialize, or rather, it materialized in some places but not others. "Apart from official statements by officials claiming this distance learning exists, I — as the parent of a schoolchild — have not seen it. We sit at home and study with the child ourselves," wrote a user under the handle Ubykh.

And while the entire world, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, is closing educational institutions and transitioning to online learning, Abkhazia continues to be gripped by arguments about what form the education system should take under the new conditions. Meanwhile, primary and pre-school pupils have already missed part of last year's curriculum and continue to drift through what amounts to an extended school holiday.

Unquestionably, the state's first priority must be the containment of epidemic outbreaks and the treatment of all those infected with the new viral disease. But the future of growing generations must not be forgotten. And if someone is willing to extend a helping hand — offering a way out — one must be able to accept that support with gratitude. Accusing everyone and everything of serving Georgia's interests requires no great intelligence. Yet in Georgia itself, there are no problems either with distance learning or with providing gadgets to those who cannot afford them. And while we sit here stirring up conflict, thumping our chests, and performing our pseudo-patriotism, the younger generation is being left without knowledge. And knowledge, as is well known, is the platform on which character, mind, and personality as a whole are formed.

Kristina Avidzba

The text contains place names and terminology used in the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia. Opinions expressed in the publication reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the editorial board.