“You are dismissed by the Minister, not by me!”

“With all my responsibility, I declare that no staff reduction of teachers is planned, has never been planned and can’t be planned at all,” – stated the Minister of Education and Science Dimitri Shashkini on June 17th, 2010. From August 5th till August 14th, only in the Kakheti office of the Human Rights Center received 247 complaints of the teachers dismissed from the public schools. In the command of the teacher’s dismissal, the paragraph D of the article 37th of the Labor Code is indicated – the cancellation of the labor agreement.

The information about the possible massive dismissal of teachers disseminated on May 30th, 2010 right after completion of the local government elections. At that time this information was categorically denied by the Minister of Education and Science Dimitri Shashkini. On the briefing held on June 17th, the Minister blamed the NGO Civil Development Institute for spreading the information about the dismissal of teachers on their website and called on them “to think about the teachers who are old and it’s especially hard for them to hear such information and also, you can’t play on people’s emotions.”

“Once again, I want to emphasize, that no teacher reduction is planned. We have a deficiency of teachers and for this reason we launched a program – “Teach with Georgia” – stated Dimitri Shashkini. According to him, one of the requests of the Minister to the school principals was the just distribution of hours, according to which the salaries of the teachers are determined.

After 48 days

During last week, the teachers have been massively dismissed from Kakheti public school. According to Kakheti Information Center, up to now, 20 teachers from Kardenakhi public school, 19 from Bodbe public school, 16 from Anagi public schoo, 12 from Gurjaani public, and 13 from Akhashni public school have been dismissed.

Among the dismissed are the teachers who did not have full time duties and the pensioners. The experienced teachers with different awards under the pension age are dismissed as well. Often, after the reduction of teachers, less qualified and incompetent teachers were assigned for the free hours.

The teacher of Georgian language and literature Tsismar Darchashvili is one of those teachers dismissed from Bodbe public school. Tsismar Darchashvili is 52 years old. She has 25 year working experience. She belongs to the first category teaching. Except for her, there are 5 more teachers of Georgian language and literature in Bodbe School. “One of them is a pensioner and the reason for her dismissal was stated to be her age. I never received an explanation of my dismissal. They left the teachers with less experience and warned me, not to submit any complaint. When we contacted the television company “Rustavi-2” to cover the fact of our dismissal, the director stated in the comment made with the principal that we were dismissed for our incompetence. In fact, they never attended any of my classes, never evaluated the quality of teaching and never showed any interest in the work of the department. The reason of my dismissal is not even indicated in the command. The principal says that the Labor Code gives her the right to dismiss whoever she wants,” – stated Tsmismar Darchashvili.

Elena Kogteva has been working as a teacher of Russian language and literature in the # 3 public school of the town Tsnori since 1981. On August 10th, the school principal Lela Pkhovelishvili dismissed her from job. The command indicates that the reason for the dismissal is paragraph D of the article 37 of labor code – the cancellation of the labor agreement. The freed hours were assigned to Ania Jiyashvili who is an economist by profession. “When I asked the principal, what was my flaw; pedagogical experience, intellect or the communication with children, she declared, that she just wanted it so. 2 years ago, to evaluate some teachers, she distributed forms among students. The forms regarded the evaluation of the lessons. According to the evaluations, I got the highest score. My plan about the projects for open lessons is included in the documents for licensing. She hasnever attended these lessons. She said she hated the sound of the piano and requested normal music. Normal music meant the hiring of her musician spouse, with pretty good salary. Three times I met the principal and asked why I was dismissed. Finally, she stated that the reason was the frequent absence from job. For the last 2 years, I’ve missed 19 days, but presented the relevant bulletin and the doctor’s notice. Despite presenting the bulletin, she didn’t give me the relevant salary. It’s unknown where this money goes, when the money for journals, balls, stationary and other materials are collected from the teachers and students. And this happens when the sport hall is rented out to the dance group, one classroom is rented out to the math teacher, who tutors her private students while the classes are being held,” – says Elena Kogteva.

The teacher of Russian language and literature at the same school, Svetlana Benashvili says that the principal dismissed those teachers who were not profitable. “Lela Pkhovelishvili evaluates the teachers according to the profit she receives. Only those teachers were dismissed who didn’t contribute money, about 40-50 lari for her birthday party or such needs. I was told that I have low rating at school and that’s why she dismissed me. “You are 72 years old and don’t even know that your time is gone,” – said she. “My hours were given to less qualified teachers,”- noted Svetlana Benashvili.

Lia Bejiashvili has been working as a mathematics teacher at Anagi public school. She’s been receiving a pension for 2 years now.  The school principal Tamar Jokharidze stopped the labor contract on August 10th, the basis –  paragraph D of the article 27 of the Labor Code. No other explanation is given in the command. According to Lia Bejiashvili, the school principal dismissed 15 teachers along with her, though; some with influential relatives were brought back. “For example, the teacher of French, Biashvili, first was dismissed, then she was called back and assigned to the hours of art classes, when for a long time there’s an individual with an art degree is asking for this job. To her relative, she gave 1 hour labor and 3 hours nature classes, taken from the Geography teacher. Some relatives of the principal work in the school. None of them were dismissed. I took a pedagogical loan from bank, I’m single, and I don’t know how I can cover this loan,” – says Lia Bejiashvili.

Ignore

The teachers of the elementary school of the village Shildi, region Yvareli, Dodo Mirianashvili and Nunu Tevdorashvili addressed the Minister of Education with an open letter: “Please, explain to us whether we are dismissed on the basis of your command? We are not pensioners. Can the principal still dismiss us? In case of a legal basis, we, as law-obedient citizens would have obeyed the law, we would not have started looking for the guilty officials, but in the situation of such injustice, when we are not told the reason of our dismissal, we don’t know where’s the source of our dismissal, in the Ministry, resource center or school, we can’t be inactive. Principal says: “You are dismissed by the Minister, not by me,” – the authors of the letter have not received a response from the Ministry of Education yet.

As for the accusations of the teachers, the school principals stated that the teachers have a right to address the Ministry of education and ask for the response.

They Addressed

Several teachers addressed the Ministry of Education and Science and requested the renewal of their job. All of them received the same answer from the Ministry.

“The school principal is the authority figure for the school leadership and representatives. The cancellation of the agreement is the authority of the school principal as an authority enshrined to the employer by the legislation. This can be implemented both by its own initiative and addressing the leadership council. The compliance of the cancellation of the contract to the legislation is a court competence,” – states the letters from the Ministry.

Baseless, Illegitimate and Groundless

According to the lawyer of the Human Rights Center, Lia Khuroshvili, the commands of dismissal of the public school teachers is baseless, illegitimate and groundless.

“Article 37 of the Georgian Labor Code determines the bases for cancellation of the agreement. Paragraph D of this article covers the instances of the agreement cancellation. The first article of this code regulates the labor and consequent interrelations, if they are not regulated differently by the special law or international agreements signed by Georgia. According to the paragraph Z of the article 43 of the “Georgian Law on The General Education,” the school principal has an authority to cancel the labor agreement with the teacher before the expiration of the term in case of a conduct inappropriate for the pedagogical activity or incompetence confirmed according to the rule established by the law. The school principals have not presented any lawful or grounded argument confirming the violation of any of these instances. Besides, paragraph 5 of article 53 of the administrative code reads as it follows, “an administrative agency may not ground its decision on the circumstances, facts, evidence, or arguments that have not been examined and analyzed during the administrative proceeding.’’ Out of 247 complaints we could study only 22 cases so far. The commands regarding the dismissals of the teachers are issued by violation of law, we try to help the teachers submit the complaints,” – states the lawyer.

Neutral Professional Unions

The head of the free professional unions Manana Gurchumelidze numerous times stated before the halt of her authority that the professional union will not put up with the mass dismissal of the teachers. Gurchumeladze was threatening with mass protest rallies. On July 17th, the changes were made in the leadership of the teachers professional unions. The executive council ended the authority of Manana Gurchumeladze. Before this, numerous times the program was shown in the national television companies where Manana Gurchumeladze was blamed in corruption. According to the teachers dismissed from the public schools, they addressed the regional organizations of the professional unions for help, but they are on leave and could not say whether they can help.