On August 16, 2017, the Public Defender addressed the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia with a recommendation concerning the ineffectiveness of the response mechanism against child abuse in private schools.

On June 5, 2017, citizen S.Ch. filed an application with the Public Defender concerning alleged violence committed against her child by a teacher and a director in one of the private schools.

This issue was studied by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement (LEPL). The protocol of the authorization council meeting makes it clear that no deep or detailed discussion of the case of alleged violence was held. In addition, the protocol does not indicate whether the child had really been subjected to violence by the teacher or director, or what kind of disciplinary measures were to be taken in case of violence. All this creates a problem of inadequate response to child abuse in private schools. Furthermore, the response mechanism has not been appropriately evaluated; the preventive measures taken by the school have not been assessed as well.

Article 1 of order N167/N “On Approval of Rules of Disciplinary Proceedings against Teachers” issued by the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia on 30 December 2014 stipulates that the order applies only to public schools, while the rules of disciplinary misconduct of private school are defined by private schools. Consequently, there is no legal document other than the internal regulations that would define disciplinary proceedings in private schools.

Existence of high-standard safeguards against any form of child abuse is important both in public and private schools in order to protect the best interests and rights of the child. Consequently, according to this recommendation, it is necessary to define effective response mechanism against child abuse in private schools, which would specify the functions and procedures of a monitoring body in the process of investigation of child abuse; in addition, the rules and procedures of disciplinary proceedings against teachers of private school should be defined, which would ensure proper, proportionate and adequate response by the state to the violations of child rights in private schools.