Tbilisi. 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.

The recommendation includes an issue concerning alleged violence committed against a child by a teacher and a director in one of the private school. This issue was studied by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement (LEPL), but as the Public Defender mentioned 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

"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”, - said the Public Defender.

In full 

Source: The website of the organization