On June 20, 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia with a recommendation concerning the elimination of the use of public school resource-rooms for election purposes.

The study of the case by the Public Defender showed that during the October parliamentary elections in 2016, several public school resource-rooms were temporarily handed over to district election commissions. Consequently, students with special educational needs were deprived of the opportunity to enjoy an important component of the individual approach during getting education.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia has not responded to the above mentioned facts, which, in the opinion of the Public Defender, may contribute to the establishment of the negative practice of the use of resource-rooms by election commissions. The issue is gaining particular importance ahead of the local self-government elections due to be held in October 2017.

Based on the mentioned problem, the Public Defender called on the Ministry of Education and Science to eliminate the practice of using the public school resource-rooms for the activities of election commissions, strictly control the due use of public school resource-rooms during and after the local self-government elections and effectively supervise the implementation of the abovementioned approach in practice.