“The same thing that is happening at more than ten other schools is happening at School No. 21 - on the one hand, we are dealing with irresponsibility, on the other hand, incompetence, and, thirdly, corruption, and all of this is happening against a backdrop of toasts and grand speeches,” Simon Janashia, one of the leaders of “Freedom Square,” said on PalitraNews’ program “Resume.”

According to Simon Janashia, the corruption can be seen from the fact that some of the construction companies with which contracts are supposed to be signed for the construction and rehabilitation of schools are donors to “Georgian Dream.”

“The same thing that is happening at this school is happening at more than ten schools this year. Today, there was also a protest at the school in the village of Misaktsieli; it will definitely have to be demolished. There is also a problem at School No. 2 in Tskaltubo, in Velistsikhe, in the Tsalenjikha municipality, and at School No. 5 in Khashuri. There are schools whose students have been temporarily relocated to other schools, and just a few days after the start of the school year, they found out that they were apparently supposed to leave and be redistributed among other schools. In reality, on the one hand, we are dealing with irresponsibility, on the other hand, incompetence, and, thirdly, corruption, and all of this is happening against a backdrop of toasts and grand speeches.

School No. 21 is a good example that allows us to generalize the situation to other schools. An expert visited the school on December 10, 2025, and from December 10 until September 10, he was preparing a report that was actually based on just one inspection. The Ministry of Education says, ‘What do we have to do with this? The Infrastructure Ministry sent it.’ They did not even inquire about where the report was. This is irresponsibility. The incompetence lies in the fact that the Ministry of Education says, ‘We handed the Infrastructure Ministry a list of 400 schools.’ They requested assessments for all 400 schools simultaneously, so it was not unexpected that the process would be prolonged.

Why 400 schools? This is where we can start looking for corruption. Three years ago, the construction and rehabilitation of schools were transferred to the Infrastructure Ministry. During this period, all work was halted for months, while contracts were being transferred from one agency to another. Construction companies suffered losses as a result. In order to compensate the construction companies for their losses, the Infrastructure Ministry, at the request of the Ministry of Education, is awarding them new contracts. In order to issue new contracts, the schools first have to be assessed and then a tender has to be announced. But there have to be enough of these new contracts to compensate the companies for the losses they incurred previously. We have a pyramid-like problem here. The corruption lies in the fact that some of these companies are donors to ‘Georgian Dream.’ The more schools they demolish simultaneously, and the more contracts they sign with construction companies for schools, the more money will flow into the companies that are donors to ‘Georgian Dream,’” Simon Janashia said.