Negative Results of Optimization Process in Schools

Tako Khutsishvili

The policy of optimization of public schools in Georgia implemented by the Ministry of Education in 2005 left many villages without public schools and many pupils without education.

Although the officials from the ministry of education assess the reform in the education system positively, as a result of the optimization many pupils in the regions and villages of Georgia faced serious problems. Their fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution to get education was breached.

According to the Ministry of Education over 1 158 public schools are funded with vouchers today. They are schools with small number of pupils. The officials from the ministry state that the optimization was implemented only in those schools where pupils lived close to public schools. However, the criteria for the assessment of the “convenient distance” are not clear. The Human Rights Center has studied several cases and they demonstrated negative results of the optimization process.

Negative Result N 1 – Increased Distance

The main problem originated from the optimization of the schools with fewer pupils was increased distances between schools. Teachers and pupils have to walk several kilometers to get to the schools in the neighboring villages. Particularly pupils face problems in winter in the mountainous villages.

Pupils of the public school in the village of Verkhveli in Tianeti district go to school from the village of Zaridzeebi. The distance between the villages is 8 kilometers and three kilometers of it go through the forest.

Keti Kakauridze, chairwoman of the Trade Union of Teachers in the district. “The situation is very urgent in our district. Children have to walk through the forest to get to school. They explode rifles to fright animals. Frequently they cannot go to school.”

The situation is equal in Martvili district where 14 public schools with fewer pupils were re-organized.

Negative Result N 2 – Residents Flee from Villages

Manana Ghurchumalidze, president of the Independent Trade Union of Teachers and Scientists of Georgia, is particularly concerned about the problems originated from the optimization of schools. She thinks the optimization restricted the right of pupils to education. The Trade Union carried out special survey in the schools in the regions of Georgia to analyze the optimization process. About 1 660 schools in 60 districts of Georgia were surveyed. Manana Ghurchumalidze thinks the results were urgent.

Manana Ghurchumalidze: “Initially our organization supported the reform. We thought it would be carried out in accordance to specific needs of each region. Optimization commission was set up where our organization also had representative. The slogan of the reform was “valuable education and better accessibility for every child”. Our opinion was that every region required individual form of the reform though problems in separate schools were not studied. Thus, today we received serious problems. Children have restricted their right to education.”

Giorgi Akhvlediani, chairperson of the Parliamentary fraction of Christian-Democrats, assesses the optimization process to be offensive. He thinks if the optimization of the schools does not end, within 10 years we will have uneducated generation in the villages.

Giorgi Akhvlediani: “The reform in the education system led us to disaster. Most villages in Georgia remained without schools. Instead differentiating sums and allocating more financial vouchers on the schools in regions, they found easy solutions and closed down schools. Later, it was followed by another problem – migration. People flee from villages. They want their children to get good education though it has become impossible in their villages. When I worked for the TV-Company Imedi I prepared an item about this problem in Tsalka district. The item showed how group of pupils walked along 10 kilometers from one to another village to get to school.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science 70 buses were appointed for such pupils. They also say that schools who rent buses are funded from the ministry and local budget.

“Sometimes the bus does not have enough fuel, or it is out of order; or schools cannot pay money for their repair,” said Giorgi Akhvlediani.

Sandro Juruli, head of regional coordinating department at the ministry, stated that problems of buses are resolved in schools. However, the cases we studied demonstrate the opposite: Nunu Tavadze, director of the public school in the village of Kviani in Lanchkhuti district states that school bus has not run for one year already and children have to walk to school.

Nunu Tavadze: “School bus, which served pupils of public schools in four villages – Japana, Kviani, Chonagori and Cholobargi – went wrong and has not worked for one year already. Pupils face some danger while walking to schools. We petitioned to the regional governor Giorgi Goguadze, he promised to help us but the problem is still unresolved.”

Negative Result #3- The Debts are Accumulated on Schools

The schools in Tbilisi have different problems. Reorganized schools of Tbilisi basically have financial problems. Those which have to keep two offices have faced problems in the funds for salaries and communal bills. Tbilisi Public School N 55 has faced most serious problem because the school in Bagebi settlement was adjoined to it.

Manana Ghurchumalidze:”They united two schools in order to encourage pupils of Bagebi School to move to public school # 55. But the children did not leave the school and now the school N 55 has to pay 35 000 GEL. There is an article in the Law of Georgia on General Education, which states that schools with fewer pupils and less vouchers are funded by the ministry of education. As a result of reorganization the school #55 has allocated debts and it could not pay the communal bills. Consequently, the school cannot pay for the training of teachers”.

Khatuna Ochiauri, the deputy head of the parliamentary committee for Education, Science and Culture, states that all the problems resulted from the reform, are being solved.”Of course, there are gaps because of the reform but I definitely know that the ministry of education works to solve them. There were a lot of problems 4 years ago, but now we are talking only about concrete occasions”.

George Akhvlediani has different idea about solving the problem. He thinks they can solve it after schools are reopened in villages:”We gave a lot of briefings and made a lot of statements about the topic. We permanently discuss the problem with the minister too. Initially we achieved that the process of optimization has been stopped and the ministry of education promises it will not continue. Now we should try and reopen schools in villages. Before that, the funding process of vouchers shall be differentiated. More vouchers shall be granted to the schools with fewer pupils. If it does not happen we will have the same problems. Of course the government will say they cannot afford it because there are not enough funds in the budget. We have concrete proposals how to resolve the problem. If they allocate 5 per cent of GDP of Georgia on education (today it is only 2, 3 percent) we will solve all the problems. We talk about one billion GEL. We should get the money by reducing the expenditures of the ministries of Defence and Internal Affairs. We should increase funding of education. 20 percent of current budget is spent on the law enforcement structures, while only 11 % is spent on education and public healthcare; it should be vice versa”.

Besides that, increased number of unemployed teachers resulted from the optimization process.  According to the ministry of education, the problem of unemployed teachers will be resolved in near future.