On December 4, 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Ministry ofEducation and Science of Georgia with regard to direct discrimination and harassment on grounds of different opinion.

According to the factual circumstances of the case, the applicants are teachers of Tbilisi public school No 67, whoappeared in a disadvantageous situation compared with other teachers of the school after expressing different opinion. In particular, Ts.N. and L.K. publicly supported the candidate not backed by the school principal at the Board of Trustees, while K.A. is associated with the school's previous director. This led to the reduction of the applicants’ working hours.

In the recommendation, the Public Defender noted that cases of harassment were frequent at the school – in particular, the sister of the principal insulted teachers, which was not responded by the principal. In addition, the principal surveilled teachers during lessons, insulted them in the presence of students and degraded their authority.

The Public Defender of Georgia called on the Ministry to eliminate the discriminatory practice of distribution of working hours at Tbilisi public school No 67, create equal and harassment-free environment in all public schools of Georgia, take into consideration the importance of equality-based environment during selection of the principal of public school No 67 and ensure that the principal acts in accordance with the principle of equality.