Heating up of Conflict between Gori District Village School Principals and Teachers

Saba Tsitsikashvili, Gori

The statement of Georgian President shows his discontent with the current system of electing school principals by so called “lottery” and the exceptions to this practice has created resonance in Georgian regions. When the president’s thinking about the system of electing principals was made pubic many teachers working in villages of the Gori district openly started criticizing the principals that were selected by the draw of the lot. The collective baggage of grief, humiliation, insult, strife caused by disagreements over human resource decision other related problems in school administrations began to boil, these were kept at a lower temperature for 3-4 years but they have finally heated-up. Teachers attributed the lion’s share of their problems to the reforms that were carried out by Kakha Lomaia, the former Georgian Minister of Education.

In 66 schools of Gori district the majority do not have elected principals at this time. In approximately 20 schools there only are interim principals who were appointed by the Ministry of Education. Under such circumstances, it is understood why neither the principals chosen by lottery nor the interims ones appointed by a central authority can work in a calm situation.

For example, the teachers, pupils and the parents of these students in several schools in Gori district have been directing their questions to Human Rights Center, Gori Office for years. They would like to know how to get rid of some of the unfavorable principals who are working in their schools. The office has applied to local bodies of the Ministry of Education with the request to solve the problem. However, in spite of all efforts, it has still not been solved to the end.

For instance, the pupils of Pkhvenisi village school wrote the letter to us back in the summer of 2007: “On July 7 the members of school board of trustees destroyed our happiness and put an end to our childish dreams because of their action. We were standing with tears in our eyes not knowing what to do. Please do not let Inga Egadze, who is only pupil on the board decide the faith of Giuli, our teacher. Please help us so that our rights will not be violated, and the school will not be run by a principal who illegally came to her position because of a revolution, and that our favorite Giuli, teacher be in the principal’s position.”

It does appear from the situation that there are board members among the trustees who are only interested in passing decisions that are only favorable for most of them. The vote of a school pupil, which by all means must be on the board, and here he/she must be actively involved in decision-making during such elections. As a general rule the pupil elected as the head of board is a son/daughter of the principal’s associate, or even the offspring of accountant or cleaner.

The pupils of Pkhvenisi village school have been opposing the school administration since 2005. Human Rights Center Gori Office received a petition signed by 50 pupils of Pkhvenisi School asking our organization for assistance in protecting their rights. They expressed their discontent against the self-government election in their school, as well as the general situation that they faced at school.

“The school administration held election of board of trustees and there were many major violations. Some pupils expressed their protest but the administration insisted on electing Inga Egadze, daughter of school accountant to the board of trustees. The head of school promoted only his associates to the board. The principal assures everyone that she will return to her position after the second round of election,” wrote the pupils in their petition.

It turns out that the board of trustees did not elect Giuli Metreveli, the candidate which passed the exams in the Ministry of Education. Supposedly the next election will be held in September. If the board of trustees does not elect the principal at this time, the Ministry of Education will have to appoint the interim principal to the position. Students say that Nona Sirbiladze, the former principal hopes that the election will take place that will bring in a new principal. Nona hopes that instead the Ministry of Education will instead have to fill the position by appointing her to the post.

Giorgi Sosiashvili, head of Gori Resource Center of the Ministry of Education states that pupils’ claim is in the Resource Center of the Ministry of Education and the investigation is now under way.

“Nona Sirbiladze, former principal of Pkhvenisi village school, members of the board of trustees and me were asked to visit the Office of the General Inspection to talk about the situation. Regardless, as for now, I still do not know how things will turn out in the future. As to the fact that the daughter of the school accountant was elected as the head of the board, there is nothing illegal about this. Nobody has addressed me in this regard,” states Sosiashvili.

Human Rights Center found out that this case was discussed only orally, meaning that the opposing parts were asked to come to the Ministry of Education and then in front of the deputy Ministers they were encouraged to openly discuss their problems.  After this oral hearing, the Ministry proceeded to warn the school to hold the next election within the scope of the law.

The next election was held back in September, 2007. As before, this latest round brought about the same conflict as before over who was elected to the as the head of the school board. The head of the board of trustees became the person who graduated from the school a long time ago. To cut the long story short, the conflict has not finished. The supporters of Giuli Metreveli lodged an appeal against the results of September 2007 election. This election was declared as invalid but now another election has to be held.

Tsiuri Eshmakurashvili, head of the board of trustees told us this is the fault of Nona Sirbiladze, interim principal. Eshmakurashvili stated: “She wants to remain in the position as the interim principal as long as possible. Therefore it is necessary for her that nobody is elected as the new principal. It was her fault that the election of head of board was cancelled in the first place. She was visiting the board members at home telling them that all of them would have the distinguishing signs, symbols during the process of voting; therefore she would be able to find out who voted for her and who voted against her. For instance, when I voted I had to draw a pentagon instead of a circle. The one other member of the board had to draw triangle to correspond to the number that was next to the principal’s name.  As a result, Nona Sirbiladze would be sure which board members were loyal to her or not.”

Nona Sirbiladze, the interim principal states that Tsiuri Eshmakurashvili’s accusations are groundless. She said if Eshmakurashvili had some claims that she had to bring them to light when the violations actually occurred and not afterwards.

Giorgi Sosiashvili, the head of Gori Resource Center states that the conflict in Pkhvenisi School will soon be resolved.