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School for Children Suffering with Scoliosis Is to be Closed

September 4, 2006

A school for children suffering with scoliosis in Rustavi is going to be closed down. Pupils, teachers and parents are protesting against this decision and ask for help. They are sure that reforms should be implemented, however “Ill children should not become the victims of reform. Closing the school means leaving children without anything”, say parents and teachers.

The teachers and parents appealed to the Deputy Minister of Education and Science Bela Tsipuria, asking her not to close the school. However, they have not received any answer from her. “Dear Bela, we ask you to take into consideration interests of teachers, parents and pupils of the school and do not close this educational body for the academic years of 2006 -2007. We hope for your understanding and delicacy and we are sure, that the problem will be solved in favour of the school,” – is written in the letter, sent to Tsipuria.

According to George Janiashvili, a former member of the school board, someone is trying to close the school who aims to give it to specific persons. “At first they changed professional staff with dilettantes. New comers could not take care of the school and decided to close it. This is a long-term plan, I suppose. The General Inspection of the Ministry of Education was studying the documents of the school for more then a month. They say that boarding schools should be demolished. It was the only school in Georgia, where besides giving education, children with scoliosis from birth or who developed it later were treated”.

The school has been working from 1960 onwards and more then five hundred children with scoliosis are studying there. Pupils from different parts of the region are living there; locals go home in the evening. The parents say that the closing of the school is caused by a lack of finances. “They say that the state does not have money to keep the school. However, the school survived more acute periods. We think that the real reason is different. By the decree of the Minister of Education, the school will not be functioning as a barding school any more,” declare parents.

George Janiashvili thinks that the reason for closing the school is the medical equipment, which is stored in the school. “At first they wanted to deliver medical care from the school. Someone wants to misappropriate the medical equipment. It is not determined yet, who has those interests. The fact is that the school is closing, the school administration is confused. The representatives of the Ministry of Education give inappropriate information every day. They do not know what they want. The parents are angry, if proper measures are not taken, it will not end well, I am afraid.”

We contacted Zura Melikishvili, the President’s official representative in Kvemo Kartli, to find out, what the state is going to do with the children, suffering from scoliosis. According to him, some changes are being made at the school, but he is not well informed about what exactly is happening. After that we tried to find information in the Ministry of Education and Science.

Tamar Chanturia, the head of Alternative Forms of Assistance for Children in Need at the Ministry of Education and Science, said that the process of closing the school has already started. The reason for that, according to her, is the optimization of the bodies like that. “The state decree was published in 2005, according to which boarding schools and children’s houses should be optimized. The state thinks that those bodies should come closer to modern standards. The group of experts, who studied the processes in the school, concluded that the methods of treatment are old and non-effective. This school is one of the bodies, who received the highest funding from the central budget. This school was established for sick children, however, children with normal health and from normal families were studying there. So we decided to use more effective methods in Rustavi to assist children in need.”

Tamar Chanturia says that less then 20% of children, attending school, are suffering from scoliosis. According to her, establishing a small ‘family house’ for this category of children is planned from January. “This house will receive funding, which was spent uncontrolled by the administration of the school”, says Chanturia.

Eka Gulua

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