Tbilisi Public School No. 21 in the Vera neighborhood has announced the suspension of classes on only the third day of the academic year. Public schools across Georgia opened on September 15, and as early as 10:00 PM on September 17, parents and teachers received a notification that there would be no classes on Friday.
According to media reports, the notice stated that the school building was in a hazardous condition and that academic activities were suspended based on an expert evaluation.
“Yesterday at 10:00 PM, after the school had been open for just two days, we received a message saying that classes would, in fact, be suspended indefinitely. According to them, experts determined yesterday that the building is in an emergency state and must be demolished. A second option is moving everything online; a third—we were also told the entire school might be distributed among three different schools… Nothing specific. Panic and anxiety prevail. This is complete disrespect toward parents, an unheard-of situation. We are tearing down schools to make way for skyscrapers,” the mother of one of the students told the TV Pirveli channel.
Parents view what happened as a consequence of poor management, among other factors: if the school administration was awaiting the results of an assessment, why were the risks not communicated in advance? They describe the suspension of classes as a violation of children’s right to an education.
The school’s former principal told the media that the educational institution had received authorization and accreditation from the Ministry of Education of Georgia two years ago. This entails that the building’s structural integrity had been verified by an inspection conducted by the Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau.
