TBILISI, October 28 – Parents of pupils from Tbilisi Public School No. 10 have taken to the streets twice in one week, demanding classrooms for their children after years of unfinished construction and repeated relocations.
The latest protest erupted on Tuesday, October 28, when parents and students blocked traffic on Tsotne Dadiani Street, carrying signs that read “No to online learning.” They called on Georgia’s Ministry of Education to provide a safe alternative building and to finally complete the new school, which they say has been under construction for six years.
Just five days earlier, on October 23, the same group had rallied outside the Education Ministry’s headquarters after learning their children were to be moved yet again, from School No. 22, where they had been temporarily studying, to another school and into afternoon shifts. Parents said that would disrupt their children’s routines and interfere with extracurricular activities.
Officials reportedly promised to take the parents’ concerns into account and to avoid changing the students’ schedules, but tensions have only grown since then.
Parents told Interpressnews that the new building for School No. 10 remains only partially constructed, with just two floors completed. In the meantime, students have been shuttled between different schools and temporary classrooms. The most recent relocation plan came after part of a wall collapsed on the fourth floor of one of School No. 22’s wings, prompting safety inspections by the Samkharauli Forensic Bureau.
“We have been moved from school to school for years,” one parent said. “Now they want to send us to a new location and make our children study in the second shift. It’s unacceptable. It violates their rights.”
During Tuesday’s protest, parents said that instead of offering another round of online lessons or partial attendance, the ministry should find a proper temporary building for all students. “This is the third time they’ve forced us out,” another parent said. “If the building is unsafe, fine. But find another place for our children. Online education is the death of our children.”
Some parents said they would no longer send their kids to school unless the government acts. “If our demands are ignored, the students will strike, and classes won’t resume,” one parent said.
