The Public Defender of Georgia has addressed the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia with regard to the protection of the rights of children of Samtredia public school No 15 (legal entity of public law).

The recommendation is based on the monitoring carried out by Public Defender's authorized representatives and an invited expert-psychologist at the Samtredia school, which revealed that the situation in the school cannot meet the objective of placement of juveniles in the above-mentioned institution and is not tailored to the individual needs of children, especially to their re-socialization.

The Public Defender considers that the Ministry of Education and Science should take all measures to change the current model of the school and carry out a reform there in order to fully protect the child’s best interests, provide appropriate social and physical environment, ensure their re-socialization, personal development and enjoyment of the right to fully show physical and mental capabilities; in particular, according to the Public Defender’s recommendation, for the purpose of satisfying the needs of the children of the mentioned school and their further integration with the society, it is necessary to develop standards of care and technical regulations for the services intended for the beneficiaries, on the basis of which, detailed, general and individual plans should be developed for the re-socialization of the beneficiaries. The plans should define specific cognitive, developmental, creative, sporting and other activities; in addition, prior to placing children in the boarding house, the necessity, reasonability and justification of application of extreme measures against them should be individually and thoroughly checked in each case; at the same time, children should be given the possibility of expressing opinion.