Ministry of Education Promises Continuity for High Mountain Boarding Schools

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, Mikheil Batiashvili, spoke yesterday saying “There is nothing more important than providing continuous education for each pupil.”

Study process at boarding schools in Barisakho and Shatili, in Khevsureti, and Magaroskari in Dusheti, will be conducted smoothly, says the Ministry.

On Batiashvili’s initiative, the villages of Barisakho, Shatili and Magharskaro will be subject directly to the Ministry, under its legal and supervisory control. The adjustment will allow schoolchildren to receive education consistently, without additional barriers.

Batiashvili announced the decision after the work of the boarding schools in these villages were temporarily suspended, falling subject to the requirements of the Law of Georgia on "Licensing Activity.” In order to prevent an interruption in the students’ learning process, the Ministry stepped in and took the schools directly under their purview.

The Ministry urges that a policy should be developed in the nearest future for special schools, in particular boarding schools in high mountain regions, to create appropriate conditions for securing the education of pupils living in high and remote regions.

A 2010 article by HumanRights.ge quoted Shota Chincharauli, headmaster of the boarding school in Shatili, as saying “Although we have vacancies of teachers, nobody has desire to work here – neither Georgian person nor foreigner who were invited from abroad. Neither the ministry of education sent anybody here. We visited Tbilisi several times; I informed the Dusheti district resource center about our problem but nobody has been sent yet.”

By Samantha Guthrie

Photo: Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia