NGO Says Georgian Gov’t Reduces Funds for Schools’ Rehabilitation
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, March 29
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) has released a report, which reads that the government of Georgia has reduced funding for rehabilitation of state schools’ infrastructure.
IDFI says that since 2014, the amount of state money spent on public schools’ infrastructure has significantly reduced, and in total, over the last 4 years, the funding decreased by 35%.
In total, the government allocated 123 million GEL on the infrastructure of Georgian schools in 2014-2017.
The statistics of spent money on schools looks as follows:
2014 – 37,227,491 GEL
2015 – 34,910,748 GEL
2016 – 26,828,921GEL
2017- 24,185,590 GEL
According to IDFI, the largest amount of money was allocated for Tbilisi schools during the last two years. The funding of schools in 2016 amounted to 8,740,398 lari while 7,098,263 GEL was spent on the infrastructure of schools in 2017.
In 2016, after Tbilisi, the largest amount of money was spent on Shida Kartli region schools- 4,204,636 GEL, and the least money was spent on schools in Adjara.
In 2017, compared to the previous year, the expenditures on schools' infrastructure have increased in Shida Kartli, Imereti and Guria regions, in Mtskheta-Mtianeti and almost all other regions the funding of schools’ infrastructure have been reduced.
Last year, the largest part of the financing was allocated for Shida Kartli region schools - 5,482,118 GEL while the amount spent on the Adjara region decreased by 91% compared to the previous year and amounted to GEL 1,727.75.
Georgia’s Imereti region has the most number of schools, followed by Adjara. Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Kvemo Kartli regions have nearly the same number of schools - 230 and 240. The least number of schools - 67 ones, are in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti.
The reduction of the schools’ rehabilitation funding was included in the report of the Public Defender, which reads that there were cases when some schools needed renovation or rehabilitated but the money as not allocated from the state budget.
