Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli
People do not talk much about the problems in the Georgian school regions or the shortcomings of the projects of the Georgian Ministry of Education. These issues are relevant only after the concrete cases reach the court.
One such case concerns teacher Liana Mamulashvili, who was commissioned to the village Darbazi of Bolnisi region by the Education Ministry.
Mamulashvili won the contest for the project entitled Qualified Teachers in Schools Populated by Ethnic Minorities. At that time, her level of knowledge and qualification were acceptable for the Professional Development Center of the Education Ministry.
“At first I wanted to be sent to the village Talaveri of Bolnisi Municipality, but the coordinator- Mrs. Mako Chilashvili- told me that it would be better if I work in the public school in the village of Darbazi. According to Chilashvili, this was a difficult place to work, and she wanted to have more qualified staff there,” – states the now former participant of the corresponding program Liana Mamulashvili. The Ministry of Education terminated her contract.
Asked how a qualified professional could become an unemployed teacher, Liana Mamulashvili will tell you: “It was really hard to work in Darbazi High School, first of all – because of the road. I had to walk 6-7 km by foot in a wild field. Two times I almost got eaten by the shepherd dogs. Fortunately, the passersby came to my help and saved my life.
When I arrived to the Darbazi village Public School, the Georgian language was considered to be secondary. It was scheduled as a late class lesson and was missed most of the time. There is no other way to explain the fact that the majority of students could not understand the question “what is your name.” After I arrived, some of the students used burned “Tavtavi” books or used them in the toilets. I did everything to turn the Georgian language into a leading subject at the school.
In addition to Georgian lessons, I arranged six different activities during the academic year, including two school excursions, during which the students arrived in Tbilisi for the first time. Some thought Marneuli was the capital of Georgia. The students opened up little by little, overcame the barrier and started speaking Georgian little by little. This was the best result achieved in such a short time.
“I did not have a bad relationship with anyone at that time. I argued with the school principal when he started registering the absent students. But our program obligated me to do so. The principal verbally insulted me due to this fact. He stated that I was controlling him.”
According to Liana Mamulashvili, student attendance is a serious problem in the schools of the Bolnisi region. Particularly, because 203 students are registered in the Darbazi public school and the school is receiving the same amount of voucher money from the state. In reality, approximately only one-hundred students actually go to school.
According to Mamulashvili, the head of the Bolnisi Region Resource Center, Shorena Gabrichidze is aware of this situation but does nothing.
Half Emptied Classrooms – the Clear Facts
Humanrights.ge visited the Darbazi Public school on January 24th. At 13:00 pm none of the classrooms had more than 10 students. In the fifth grade, only 11 children attended the lesson. Right away we started video recording the students in the classrooms. The school principal soon expressed discontent with our actions. “Are you here to control me? Why are you entering the classrooms? Show me a document proving that you have the right to enter the school?” – argued the school principal Museib Gambarov who had gladly given us permission to enter the school and talk with the students in the beginning.
Before he became irritated with our work, Gambarov calmly gave us a comment regarding Liana Mamulashvili: “You can talk with the students. They will tell you what kind of a teacher Lia Mamulashvili was. I do not say that she is a bad teacher. It is just that she often missed classes in the winter period. Sometimes she had proof that she was sick, sometimes not. One more problem was that she wanted us to do everything the way she wanted to. For instance, you do things according to your superior’s order, don’t you? It is the same here. I am a chief here and she should have obeyed me on every school related issue. As for the other accusations, I wrote down everything for the Education Ministry. They will tell you the rest.”
There were a maximum of ten students in the Darbazi Public School yet there are 203 registered. One of the students told us that only ten students go to his class and he himself visits school twice a week. We will restrain from publicizing the student’s name as we noticed that school administration employees addressed every child willing to talk to us with the following Azerbaijani word: “Chokhogli.” As we found out later, this word means “son of a bitch” in Georgian. Thus we do not want to create additional problems for the children.
Liana Mamulashvili: “My coordinator Mako Chilashvili said in the phone conversation that she was going to defend any teacher but me. The reason was due to the speech I made at a conference on March 25th 2010. I stated that the program provision which obligated us to register the absent students put us in a conflicting situation with the school leadership. As it turned out my coordinator got upset and could not endure the criticism of her program. I do not doubt anybody’s competence, but think that people employed in the warm offices of Tbilisi do not clearly see the difficulties while implementing the program. Nothing is perfect and my modest criticism should not have been insulting for them.”
We contacted Mako Chilashvili the coordinator of the program Qualified Teachers in the Region Schools Populated by Ethnic Minorities. At first she said that she was busy. Later, she called us and advised us to address the Ministry Press Service. “We have such rules,” – she explained. When the press service received our question, they did not respond to us for the whole day. On the second day, Press Service representatives Eka Kapanadze did not respond to our calls at all.
The head of the Bolnisi Resource Center, Shorena Gabrichidze gave us commentary concerning the case of Mamulashvili. We started talking with her regarding the problem of students not being present in the municipality schools.
“Why did Liana Mamulashvili not pay attention to the problem of the lack of student presence while working at the school?” – asked Shorena Gabrichidze. “So you are not denying that this problem exists?”- we asked. “No, I’m just asking why she did not state in the beginning that this problem existed. With all the responsibility I can say that we do not have any particular difficulty in terms of student presence. Students attend our lessons just like in other regions. If the students are not present by 100%, it is due to their health state. They have legitimate notifications,” – stated Gabrichidze. She further added: “As for the dispute between Mamulashvili and the principal of the Darbazi Public School, unfortunately I found out this information too late. When they came to me, the principal had already written the complaint to the ministry.”
In conclusion, there are many significant problems emphasized in this complicated case. First of all, it would be interesting to know whether the student presence in the whole region is like it is in the Darbazi Public School. And where do the thousands of vouchers go that are provided for the region schools?
Gogi Urumashvili taught at the Darbazi Public School before Mrs. Liana Mamulashvili came there.
“By law they must keep the school journals for 25 years. Bring these journals to court and everything will be ascertained. You know what they did. They cut out the pages where I registered absent students and pasted new ones. This was the real reason why they dismissed me from school,” – states former Darbazi Public School teacher Gogi Urumashvili.
Thus, Liana Mamulashvili is not the only teacher who had the problems with the school principal for the same reason. Liana Mamulashvili plans to restore her reputation in the court. Nobody knows when the Education Ministry will acknowledge the problems of the regional schools and address them.
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