The Ministry of Education responds to reports about the planned demolition of Tbilisi Public School No. 42, named after Ilia Vekua

Georgia’s Ministry of Education has responded to reports claiming that Tbilisi Public School No. 42, named after Ilia Vekua, is set to be demolished.

The Ministry has not clarified whether the demolition of the school is planned. Speaking to InterPressNews, Ministry representatives said it has not yet been definitively established whether students will need to be relocated following the expert assessment.

According to the Ministry, a meeting will likely be held to discuss the matter.

“The Vekua School itself was informed a long time ago that the building needed renovation. An expert assessment was required to determine what work needed to be carried out. The school has been aware of this for quite some time. They have probably received the expert assessment report now, because the school has long known that the building is in poor condition and needs to be evaluated. They are also aware that we are working on alternative premises.

Alternative premises have already been identified for them. These are currently being renovated and prepared. However, we are talking about temporary facilities. We cannot confirm the situation at this stage. A meeting will probably be held to discuss whether relocation is necessary and, if students are to be moved, the relevant details. Nothing has been confirmed so far.

If the expert assessment clearly determines that the building must be vacated, we will have to relocate the people inside. The expert assessment report is available, but a similar report was also issued in the case of Public School No. 21, and subsequently some details changed, allowing classes to continue in the same building. In the case of School No. 21, after the report was received, certain aspects were clarified and temporary structural reinforcement was carried out,” representatives of the Ministry of Education stated.