TBILISI, October 28 – Pupils at Tbilisi Public School No. 10 have waited eight years for a replacement building. Next year, they may finally get one.
Parents and pupils blocked Tbilisi’s Dadiani Street on Monday, demanding that construction be completed and the children returned to their own school.
According to the protesters, the old building was demolished eight years ago because it was unsafe and failed to meet seismic standards. Construction of its replacement began in 2023-24 but remains unfinished. At an earlier protest, parents opposed online teaching and asked the Education Ministry to provide temporary premises.
Infrastructure Minister Revaz Sokhadze went to meet the protesters. He accepted responsibility for the delay and promised that classes would begin in the new building in September 2027. He said he would leave his position if that promise was not kept.
The deadline has already moved considerably. Sokhadze previously said the construction contract called for completion in May 2026. At the time, he blamed slow work by the contractor and complications involving a planned sports ground and neighbouring land.
School No. 10 is one of several cases exposing the difficulties behind Georgia’s school rebuilding program intended to modernise 800 schools by 2026. But despite the ambitious goal, families in several parts of Georgia are still being offered online lessons, second shifts or transfers while unsafe buildings are repaired or demolished.
In September, officials said repairs were urgently needed at Tbilisi Public School No. 21. The ministry offered to place its pupils in Schools No. 49 and 51 during second shifts or move lessons online. Parents rejected both options. The authorities later decided to carry out temporary repairs, return the pupils under continued monitoring and begin full reconstruction during the summer.
At Misaktsieli, near Tbilisi, experts found that the existing school was too damaged for teaching to continue. Pupils were offered places at another school while the Municipal Development Fund prepares to build a replacement.
Tbilisi Public School No. 166 faces an even longer wait. Its old building is being demolished, and Sokhadze said on October 18 that constructing its replacement would probably take three years. A tender is expected late this year or early in 2027.
The sorry state of school buildings was addressed by then prime minister Irakli Garibashvili – who is currently in prison – in August, 2022, as he announced plans to build or renovate 800 of them by 2026. A senior Georgian Dream education official said the programme would bring practically every public school up to European infrastructure standards.
As the government tries to catch up with the delays, an official report said the Education Ministry accepted 55 renovated schools in 2025, while another 75 were transferred to the Infrastructure Ministry for construction or rehabilitation. The Municipal Development Fund said in February that design and procurement work was planned for another 12 schools in 2026.
But as 2026 nears its end, unsafe buildings and delayed projects remain. Lelo, an opposition party, claimed in September that work at 77 schools was delayed and that another 400 still required construction or renovation.
Georgia had 2,086 public schools and 206 private schools at the beginning of the 2025-26 academic year. Public schools educated 88.8% of all pupils.
