Hullabaloo in Taleri Public School

Who breaks the law, teacher or their pupils?!

Nana Pazhava, Martvili

Everybody can answer this question in the public school of the village of Taleri in Martvili District. However, teachers and pupils are pointing the finger at one another.  The school has been famous for serious discontent between its human resources a long time already; pupils have recently become activists. Last week, the controversy between teachers and pupils reached a peak. Consequently, the adults were brought to the police station; and teachers and Board of Trustees are discussing their dismissal.

The big hullabaloo at the Taleri Public School resulted from an instance of skipping out from school. 6 or seven pupils escaped from the first lesson and went to the cemetery and the alcohol bottles were later found empty. They had celebrated to the memory of their fathers and later in the day, when the fifth lesson was going on, the pupils returned to school. The head of the Educational Department and school organizer were not pleased, especially at sight of the drunken children; Aza and Dinara Jojuas started rebuking the boys from as soon as they came into the school.

Dinara Jojua: “They drank on the bank of the Tekhura River and they were so drunk when they returned to school that it was evident they wanted to fail their lessons. I told Beka Bigvava not to come back to school in such a sad state. He was stinking drunk, his hair and clothes were in disorder; he looked like a drug addict. The boy then insulted me in response to my remarks and other boys joined in with other recriminations, Lekso Nachkebia called both and my sister prostitutes”.

Henri Jijelava: “When we came to school we confessed to teachers that we were drunk. However, they did not understand us and went about insulting us and our parents; I did not insult any teacher.”

The situation got so tense at school that the director called the police from Didi Chkoni police station. All seven pupils were taken to the station; later their parents arrived at the police and the children were released after five-hours of interrogation.

 The parents do not appreciate the behavior of their children but they thought that the teachers and the police had also made some wrong decisions. Eliso Kikelava, mother of Henri Jijelava assessed the proposal of the district police inspector as an ultimatum.

Eliso Jijelava: “The policemen decided to consider the behavior of only four boys. Paata Sulukhia, the inspector, told me that if we withdrew four of them, Jijelava, brothers Nachkebias and Bigvava from school, the problem would be easily resolved. Otherwise, all seven boys would be taken under supervision of the police department and they would not be able to leave the district for 6 months. That means, if we would take our children from school they would not be considered as criminals any more.”

Merab Jijelava, the director of the public school, speaks about the bad behavior of the pupils. He considers the decision of the school administration as having been fair under the circumstances “The police have been controlling our school because such incidents are very frequent. I personally appealed to the police but nobody made an ultimatum from the side of the police. I requested the law enforcers to supervise those pupils.”

Dinara Jojua: “The mother of Nachkebias felt particularly insulted when her sons were taken to the police station. We sent the boys to the police just to threaten them. We did not ask law enforcers to arrest the boys. She personally rebukes her sons all the time but cannot stand when others are pointing the finger at them and making harsh remarks.”

The school director does not intend to expel the pupils from school. He stated that the law does not envisage such activities because it was the first occasion, and only two of the pupils will be officially rebuked; others will be verbally reprimanded.

The head of the Educational Department and school organizer contradict the above-mentioned decision of the director. The next day following the incident, Dinara and Aza Jojuas did not allow the boys back to their Georgian language and history lessons. Consequently, other pupils also left the lessons to express their solidarity to the boys being punished. As a result lessons were dropped in the 10th grade just ten days before the summer holidays started.

Dinara Jojua categorically prohibits Lekso Nachkebia and Henri Jijelava from entering the school. The teacher stated that she was particularly annoyed by Lekso Nachkebia’s statement at the police station where he claimed that Dinara Jojua was extorting 100 GEL from his parents.

Dinara Jojua: “These children turned me into an extorter as well, said Nana Todua, the mother of Nachkebias. I was a pupil too. We both represented National Movement during elections. Thus, I asked her to contribute 100 GEL to us to arrange school event. I also told her special account number in school. Now these pupils are slandering me; their parents do not complain over their children attending school without a bookbag and textbooks; they do not care that they sons insult teachers and use foal language. I cannot conduct lessons with such pupils…”

Neither the pupils want to attend the lessons conducted by Dinara and Aza Jojuas. It has not been ruled out that that the pupils will be officially refused the right to attend their lessons should their appeals to the school board go against them.

Dinara Jojua: “Teachers cannot expel me from the school. Can one or two pupils decide the future of a teacher?! Who will write the appeal? Lekso Nachkebia’s sweetheart and classmate or “frozen volcano” will organize the protest, and it is this person who constantly launches such controversies at our school.”

The “frozen volcano” is Lia Gulordava, former director of the public school who currently teaches Biology at school. General inspection of the Georgian Ministry of Education has been involved the discontent at school already for four years. The schooling process was delayed for ten days because of controversy between Lia Gulordava and Jojuas. The sisters Jojuas were sentenced with house arrest for ten days for having beaten Lia Gulordava.

Currently, the position of the school director is ucertain. Merab Jijelava positively assesses the sisters Jojuas and considers that in the case teachers and pupils cannot cooperate, the pupils should be expelled from school. The director cannot deny the incident that happened between Dinara Jojua and the grandmother of Henri Jijelava in his room.

Merab Jijelava: “Henri Jijelava is the son of Dinara Jojua’s brother-in-law (husband’s brother). Consequently, Henry’s grandmother is Jojua’s mother-in-law; they actually had argument in my quarter but it did not look like a controversy between the teacher and parent but more a quarrel between a daughter and a mother-in-law. So, I dismissed them both from my room. Nobody wants to listen to domestic problems at school.”

Tsitsino Chochua, the head of the Martvili District Resource Center within the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science personally attempted to resolve the conflict at the Taleri Public School. “School is a educational institution and not a place for resolving family disputes.  It is clear that children have made a mistake and showed back up to school drunk. Such kinds of relations between pupils and teachers are unacceptable. It is a first time and children should be seriously punished. Nonetheless, teachers should be more patient.”

Decisions regarding the pupils have not been made at the Taleri Public School as of yet. The Board of Teachers and Trustees has not schedule a meeting yet. The disobedient pupils are not going to be expelled from school.