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Private Demirel College Was Refused to Take Authorization

September 13, 2017
 
Natia Gogolashvili

On September 15, Private Demirel College will not renew school year. The college stopped 25-years-long education activities based on the decision of the Authorization Council for General Educational Institutions. On August 29, 2017 the Council refused the Private Demirel College to get authorization. As their conclusion reads, the Council made decision considering the legal violations they discovered in the educational institution. At the same time, in accordance to the decision, all three standards necessary for the authorization (educational programs, material resource and human resource) were violated. 

According to the statement of the college administration, the college will appeal the court in accordance to the law in order to defend the rights of their students and teachers. The decision of the Council may be appealed at the Appeal Council or in the administrative collegium of the Tbilisi City Court.

“The authorization procedure includes evaluation of the compliance of 3 standards – educational programs, material resources and human resources with the estimated standards. The group of experts evaluated these standards and made following comments: “contradicts the law,” “badly verified,” “suspicious.” Final decision was negative based on subjective evaluations. The final part of the experts’ decision mentions positive atmosphere in the school, high qualification of the personnel, friendly team and achievements of the students on the national and international levels; it casts doubt over the previous negative assessments in the conclusion. Representative of the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement concluded it was impossible to grant authorization to the college based on the decision and suggested us to withdraw the complaint; she suggested we could re-apply for the authorization after 6 months,” the statement of the founding partners of the Ltd Private Demirel College reads. 

The statement of the press-center of the Ministry of Education and Science reads that the students of the Private Demirel College will be distributed in different schools.

“The Demirel College had violations but at the same time it had very good students and competent teachers. We will create all conditions for them to be distributed into different schools smoothly. We are conducting negotiations with several private schools; they already expressed readiness to accept the students and teachers from the Demirel College and they will learn about the decision in near future,” the head of the press-center at the Ministry Nata Asatiani said.

The head of the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement does not exclude that because of the observed violations in the Demirel College, criminal liability will be imposed on concrete individuals. Sanikidze said the criminal activities were detected in the college. 

“We speak about very serious violations. During the authorization evaluation the school director said he did not share responsibility [for the violations] and indicated at the founders, who rudely interfered in the school activities. They demanded him to sign fake documents, which aimed to admit the education of many students,” Sanikidze said.

The school director reacted Sanikidze’s statement in her public statement. She noted that the founders never oppressed her and Sanikidze’s statement was not true.

“On August 29, 2017 the Council refused the Private Demirel College to get authorization. Afterwards, different media sources disseminated the comments of the Council members, which were very ungrounded and false. On August 31, the head of the National Center for the Educational Quality Enhancement Tamar Sanikidze disseminated incorrect information about the Council session and my statements. In her interviews to different media, Tamar Sanikidze stated that I had reported about the oppression from the side of the college founders. It is not true and it can be checked in the minutes of the Council session. During the session I clarified how the founders develop the general strategy of the school year. It is not correct information and degrades me. I would like to add that I took up the position of the director in the Demirel College in October 2016, after the College had already started accepting foreign students and the process of acknowledgement of the education had launched, which was implemented by the National Center for the Educational Quality Enhancement itself together with the Ministry of Education,” Nino Kavtiashvili said.

The statement of the founding partners of the Private Demirel College reads that “abovementioned events clearly reveal that the Demirel College is subject of political oppression that results from the political oppression of the Government of Turkey on the Government of Georgia.”

The statement also reads about the recent developments in the college and underlines the politically motivated arrest of Mustafa Emre Chabuq, the quality manager of the college.

“On the first day of the school year in 2016, the financial police entered the Demirel College unexpectedly and the students and teachers were under serious oppression during two days; as a result, up to 100 students left school. About 30 teachers were questioned. The Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finances started inspection in the Private Demirel College and two more schools simultaneously and imposed payment of 1 200 000 GEL on the college and 500 000 GEL on schools. In February 2017, authorization of the Ltd Shahin School-Lyceum was cancelled, though the school had received it a year before. The share-holders of the Demirel College were not allowed into Georgia. The material and non-material property of the college was sequestered, which hindered realization of the shares and attraction of new investments. We had to leave the traditional building of the college, which we had leased for 24 years. Having left the building, the owner sued the college at the court to claim 1 million GEL because of our dispute with the Ministry of Economics. On May 24, 2017 the College manger Mustafa Emre Chabuk was arrested to extradite him to Turkey,” the statement reads. 

As it was already noted, the dispute will now continue in the court because as the college administration stated, they will appeal the court to defend the rights of their students and teachers. 

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