School – Prison

Sopo Getsadze

The video portal of Human Rights Center hridc.tv decided to get acquainted with the general situation in the school. We wanted to find out what kind of sanitary situation there is, what are the conditions like and in general is there the structure that ensures the normal educational processes.

We chose one of the schools by chance and started working. We were interested in the work of public schools before and knew that the school principals received the consent from the Education Minister for issuing any kind of information. Thus, we asked the Education Minister for the permission. The PR manager of the Ministry Natia Papava explained that the permission of the Ministry is not needed: “You do not need anybody’s permission. The school principal decides this issue independently.”

- But we were told in the school that we need to get permission from you.

- No, they would not have told you that! They know that we do not interfere in this process.

- So, if we go to school, we will not need the Ministry’s permission?

- No, you do not need permission.

So we went to the #117 Public School. We met a bailiff in the school yard who freely let us inside the yard. I was told that the principal was at school as well. We were taking video scenes in the yard when some lady came up and started fighting with us at first and then with the bailiff who let us in. On our question whether she was a principal, she angrily stormed out of the yard refusing to answer the question. Then she rebuked the guard. Then the guard came out and advised us to write a letter to the principal and to explain what we wanted.

We wrote the letter. The guard periodically came out in every half an hour and gave us information that the principal was discussing whether or not to let us in with someone. After a half an hour, the assistant of the principal Manana Modebadze came out and requested the permission from the Education Ministry. She said that the principal was not in school and was in Isani-Samgori resource center.

- The guard told us that the principal was requesting written explanation as to who we were and what we wanted. When we sent the letter, they told us that the principal would see and decide whether to let us in. So what does it mean, for half an hour they were figuring whether principal was in the place?

- I was at the lesson… And there is another moment here – when you come here you should bring a permission. It is an educational department.

- We already called in the Education Ministry and they told us that we do not need such permission.

- You should bring such permission from the organization which sends you. We do not even let the parents in. When the Minister comes, we need to know it beforehand. Even he asks us beforehand.

- If you want to know where we are from, here is the document that we are from the Human Rights Center.

- Where did you get the permission?

- Permission? When we prepare video reports, we do not need permission. We were told in the Education Ministry that we do not need permission to enter the school.

- Darling, we cannot let you in without the permission.

- The Ministry stated that we did not need permission. Do you have different rules?

- Call them and find out.

- To confirm that we did not need permission we called the representative of the Ministry press service Natia Papava and she talked to Manana Modebadze. After talking with her for several minutes Manana Modebadze told her on the phone – “Ok, we will delicately say no… Then she started laughing with satisfied tone. (See the video).

After talking with the Ministry official for a while the Principal’s assistant and school guard starting attacking us. They stated that it is up to the school principal to decide whether or not we can enter the school and since the principal is not there we were refused to go in.

Later we found out that this argument was not true – the principal Dalila Zukhbaia who reportedly “was not at school,” turned out to be that aggressive woman who fought with us in the school yard and then went in the building.She was captured by our video camera and then we compared these video scenes to the photos disseminated in the internet.

We knew that we would not be able to enter the school so easily but we really did not know that it would be so problematic. We decided to find out if the situation is the same in other schools.

The situation was the same in Tbilisi #64 Public School. The principal met us in the entrance. She did not even let us in. We talked at the door. (See the video).

- We would like to enter the # 64 Public School and see the study conditions. We will not hinder the educational process.

- Yes, but you know what?... You need to have a permission from the PR of the Education Ministry. There is a #837 decree of the Ministry which concerns this issue. It is no problem if the Ministry representative calls and tells me that. When the thing concerns the media or TV we need the consent from the Ministry. This is determined by law and we cannot do anything unless there is permission from the Ministry.

- We already contacted the Ministry representative who told us that we do not need such permission…

- We still cannot let you in. There are lessons and diploma exams underway and we are not letting anyone go in.

Then we wrote an insured letter to the principal of the #117 Public School and requested the public information and a permission to enter the school when they were available. We explained that the educational process would not be hindered. The post office informed us that the letter was personally hand passed to the school principal. For ten days they did not respond. Then we called Dalila Zukhbaia on the cell-phone. When she found out who we were and what we were calling about she stopped the conversation and then turned off the cell-phone.

We asked the lawyers to explain whether the legislation allowed the school principal to prohibit us to enter the public school. The lawyer of Human Rights Center Nestan Londaridze explains that according to the legislation it is not prohibited to enter the school: “If the school has some rules it should be reflected in the regulation. There might be some special rules in the regulation regarding the working hours and the process of lessons but not regarding the entering the school in general.”

The lawyer got acquainted with the #837 decree of the Minister as well. This normative act does not state that the media needs to get permission from the Education Ministry’s PR department for entering the school.

We realized that the only way to receive permission from school was the court. We ascertained that Georgian schools turned into some kind of prisons the principals of which are fulfilling the unwritten rules of somebody. This “somebody” is supposedly an Education Minister who was the Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia before. It seems like the Minister thinks that schools are prisons “where it is prohibited to enter.”