The Russian newspaper “Izvestia” reports that the Georgian Ministry of Education has decided to allow the Chechen language to be taught in the district of Pankisi Gorge.

From September 2013, the Chechen language will be taught in accordance with the national standards in Georgia on foreign language education. In this context, the largest high school in the village of Duisi will offer the Chechen language. However, the Ministry has pointed out that the school should seek financial and human resources on this issue, but the Chechen society is satisfied with the decision.

“We are allowed to teach the Chechen language. This has never happened before in Georgia,” said Mekka Hangoshvili, a member of the Chechen diaspora in Georgia.

“There is an age-old tradition in Georgia, the ethnic minorities can learn their mother languages… On the question of text books and teachers, I don’t see a problem, because in our institute, there are specialists from Chechnya, we have text books and dictionaries in the Chechen language,” said Lali Ezugbaya, head of the Institute of Linguistics in Tbilisi.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco