Kaspi Inhabitants Protest against Closure of Kindergartens

Tea Tedliashvili

The inhabitants of Kaspi town demand that the local administration re opens kindergartens in Kaspi town. The locals protest against the closure of kindergartens. They claim that the government closed kindergartens on the grounds that IDPs would be settled there. The locals say that they can not afford private kindergartens. “The closure of state funded kindergarten is a serious problem to us because we go to work every day and we have no one with whom children can stay for this period of time. We used to leave children in kindergartens. We spoke with the deputy district governor about the problem but with no success. The fact is that kindergartens have not been functioning since September 2008,” people say. Private kindergartens are unavailable not only because they are expensive for ordinary people but also because of their location.

The local government promised the inhabitants of Kaspi district that kindergartens would be reopened in January 2009. However, no positive changes have been observed so far in this regard. No one knows when the kindergartens  will be re opened. The local authorities claim that kindergartens were shut down because of IDPs. However, the locals say that no IDPs were settled in any of kindergartens. “The kindergarten where my child used to study was repaired and was ready for exploitation. I have nothing against the IDPs, I myself come from the conflict zone and I can perfectly understand their plight but the district administration can solve the problem very easily. They can open at least two kindergartens in Kaspi town and everything will be all right,” said Elza Basilidze.

Kakha Khachirashvili, the Kaspi District Governor informs that the kindergartens are still being repaired. The international NGOs are repairing the kindergartens. Therefore, the local government does not know when the repair of 24 kindergartens will be over and when they will start functioning.

“I myself want that the repair was soon over. There are 7 000 IDPs in Kaspi district totally. We were forced to close kindergartens in order to give shelters to IDPs. We placed 89 IDP families in cottages in Tserovani. Some families received compensations.  80 IDPs from Akhalgori district live in the buildings of private enterprises at present. Kindergartens needed some repair when the IDPs left them, some needed repair for a long time: some had old roofs, some needed new window glasses and s on. International organizations are working on the problem and the kindergartens will continue functioning soon,” said Kakha Khachirashvili.

There are only 5 kindergartens in Kaspi town. All of them are being repaired with the money of international organizations. No money was spent by the local government.