Neither Food nor Salaries, but Nursery Schools Remains Open

One day, watery soup, beans, potatoes. The next, potatoes, watery soup, beans, a little milk reads the menu for the nursery school where staff still have not received their salaries.

There are six nursery schools in Adigeni District, in the resort town of Abastumani and in the villages of Arali, Bolajuri, and Ude. Since January 2007, the state budget stopped funding these schools. The nursery schools’ employees have gone without salaries for three months already.
“I have worked as a cook for the nursery school in Ude for 38 years. Initially, [officials] promised to keep the schools open and salaries at the same rate, but now they say we will no longer be paid. Why should we not [get our wages]? I am a widow and live alone. How can I earn my living? I have not cows, hens, or pigs. What will I do? I have not received my wages for three months,” said Ketevan Chilashvili.

“We have not received our salaries for three months. [Officials] now promise that they will reallocate money for our schools in the budget…” said Natela Maisuradze, the director of the nursery school in Ude.

Almost fifteen hundred families live in the village of Ude. There are 33 children in one nursery and 25 children in another in the village.

Both nursery schools’ buildings are in poor condition. The walls are collapsing and the windows are broken. Cellophane covers several windows. All the doors creak terribly. The floorboards are so disjointed that one could stick a foot between them.

“Nobody has promised us to repair the building. Out of our own money, we can only afford to paint the floors,” said Guguli Mamulashvili, a nursery school employee.

Teachers who work out of concern for the children at the nursery school feed their own children with food they buy on debt. Their debt at one food store reached 350 Lari.

“The town is small and we all know everyone well, so we help each other,” said Tina Kometiani, the director of the Adigeni Nursery School.

There is a different situation in the village nursery schools. “Parents supply us with food, such as cabbage and beans, and on occasion they bring us milk. Last year, officials allocated to each nursery school two hundred Lari for the year. With those funds, we bought cereal, meat, and sweets for the children,” said Rusudan Saanishvili, director of Nursery School # 1 in Ude.

Children do not sleep in the kindergartens. “It is too cold, and we cannot put the children to bed. We have no gas. Parents supply us with firewood,” said Masiuradze.

The 2007 budget of the Adigeni Municipality did not include any funds for nursery schools. “Those institutions have not been established as legal entities, yet. Thus, we could not foresee funds for them in the budget,” said Zura Chilingarashvili, Governor of the Adigeni Municipality. “In the future, there will be non-profit legal entity in the name of Adigeni Nursery School, which will have branches in the villages of Arali, Ude, Bolajuri and Abastumani. The fund will be apportioned as subsidies and distributed to all six nursery schools equally,” said the governor.

The kindergartens have not received toys for dozens of years. There are only shabby plastic cubes, frayed teddy bears, and old books with the photo of Lenin on the cover.

The children are looking forward to getting toys and the employees – their salaries.

 Gulo Kokhodze, Adigeni