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School in the former administrative building of the collective farm

December 12, 2016
 
Nurana Mammad

There are two schools in Kulari village of Marneuli municipality: one of them is Azerbaijani school and the second – Russian. Both school buildings need substantial reconstruction. However, the Azerbaijani school is in particularly grave conditions, which is located in the former administrative building of the collective farm. 91 pupils study in the school; the walls are cracked; window-frames are broken; rain water leaks through the roof. The Kulari Azerbaijani school was not on the list of public schools, which should have been renovated based on the 2016 action plan of the Ministry of Education. The representatives of the Educational and Scientific Infrastructure Development Agency state the final conclusion about the state of the Kulari village school was not submitted to their office so far.

Ismikhan Mursagulov, teacher of the Azerbaijani language and literature at the Kulari Azerbaijani school, said the classrooms are not properly heated by fire-wood stoves. “The rooms are always damp because rain leaks in the roof. The windows and doors need replacement too. For that reason, it is impossible to warm the rooms that negatively impacts on the children; they often miss last lessons. The teachers collected money to paint walls and buy several new blackboards.”

English language teacher Tariel Hasyev said the school needs substantial reconstruction and renovation. “The roof is very old. During the rain, it rains inside the building too. The school needs substantial reconstruction.”

Asef Aliyev has been teaching Geography at the Kulari public school since 2003. He thinks the school needs re-equipment with educational items. “I renovated the Geography room with my money. Almost every window is broken in the school and it is difficult to warm the rooms. The blackboards are also old and broken. We have only 2 computers in the school but there is no internet. So, the pupils cannot get information about modern world and we also have barriers in our work. Internet is very important for our work. When we need to send letter to the Ministry of Education, we go to the Russian school. They have internet but we do not have though there is only one kilometer distance between us.”

The school director Humbet Suleymanov said the school is located in the former administrative building of the soviet time collective farm. “You also see that the walls are very cracked; water is leaking from the roof that makes the building very damp. The village is supplied with natural gas but we do not have central heating in the school. We warm classrooms with firewood stoves. We hope the Ministry of Education will pay attention to us, rehabilitate the building and install central heating.”

According to the Ministry of Education, in 2015, 862 public schools were renovated in Georgia. In accordance to the 2016 action plan, the Ministry planned to renovate 511 schools. Kulari Azerbaijani school was not among those 511 schools. The representatives of the educational and Scientific Infrastructure Development Agency say they have not yet received final conclusion about the state of the Kulari school building.

“The Agency studies the problems in public schools in accordance to the estimated priorities. According to the correspondence from the public schools, educational resource centers and after the representatives of the Agency examine/study the situation in the public schools, the next year action plan is elaborated. In 2015 the Agency renovated 862 schools. Based on the 2016 action plan renovation activities were planned in the municipalities of ethnic minorities too. As for the Kulari school in Marneuli municipality, we observe the conditions of the building to exclude the possibility of its demolishment. Then, we will conclude how reasonable it is to renovate the present building,” chief specialist at the public relations service unit of the Agency Tamar Mindiashvili said.

As the representatives of the Agency say, their office will deliver the rehabilitation project of the school as soon as the examination of the building is over.

The article was prepared in the frame of the project implemented by Human Rights House Tbilisi with financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia. HRHT bears sole responsibility for the content of the article. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the donor.

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