This film is five years old. The number of children in Tskhinval orphan boarding school is not decreasing
Roland Tedeev, director of the Tskhinval boarding school for orphans and children deprived of parental care, recalls that there had been children of 11 nationalities at Kurta orphanage a year before the war whom had been sent there from all over Georgia. The orphanage was closed down during the beginning of the outbreak of the first Georgian-Ossetian war.
From orphanage to boarding school
Roland Tedeev:
“The Tskhinval-based boarding school for orphans and children deprived of parental care was founded on the principles of the Kurta orphanage and the Russian sector of Kurta school. The very name ‘orphanage’ pressed hard upon the children’s psyche. Therefore, it was reconceived as a boarding school for orphans and children deprived of parental care. 182 children, aged 2-17, are currently brought up and educated here.
Apart from orphans who have lost both of their parents, there are also those from families with many children, as well as children from struggling families, where the parents are incapable of performing their duties. There are also children from remote villages, where the nearest school is located ten kilometers away.
The boarding school provides everything one needs to have for permanent residence and study. There are optional extracurricular activities after classes finish: a sewing circle, dance club, drama club, choir, percussion orchestra, guitar lessons, beekeeping, as well as volleyball, tennis and basketball teams.
Stable quantity
Roland Tedeev:
‘I’ve been the director of this boarding school since 2007. The amount of children here is not decreasing, on the contrary, it is growing in number. In the past three years, the number of our children amounted to 170-180 and this rate is not decreasing, thought the complex is designed for only 150, and we have to reject many applicants. Today, 17 children attend special education classes, whereas the overall number of children suffering from cerebral palsy and other serious diseases throughout the republic amounts to 200. They stay at home and do not attend classes.
There is no longer the need to acquire new appliances and equipment in the boarding school now due to the support of the Russian Railway Company. Last year, Russian Railways Co. allocated 450,000 RUB in order to procure a multimedia projector and language lab equipment for a computer class.
Jambulat Tedeev, a renowned athlete and public figure, covers the boarding school’s unlimited internet access costs.
Roland Tedeev:
‘I am a supporter of innovative instruction. It would be nice to divide the boarding school children according to different areas of activity: physics and math; chemistry and biology, humanities, agricultural technologies. Since 2015, we have introduced auto-engineering classes in the 10th and 11th grades.
Today, there is no Law on Guardianship and Trusteeship in South Ossetia and, consequently, the is no relevant agency responsible for this. The Under-aged Guardianship and Trusteeship Commission is functioning with Tskhinval’s administration, but it has no legal powers to deprive negligent parents of their parental rights and assign their children to the boarding school.’
Last year, one of our children, a fourteen-year-old girl, appealed to the boarding school director with the request to deprive her mother of parental rights.
‘I realized that deprivation of maternal rights was an extreme measure, but there was nothing I could do in this situation and, upon the girl’s request, I had to file a lawsuit as a legal entity. Her mother was given time to correct her behavior, but in vain. In the end, her mother was deprived of her parental rights.’
The most important memories for Tshinval boarding school director are those associated with the children, who left this place because they finally found an ideal family: the Makievs, brother and sister, who were adopted by a family in Vladikavkaz; Oksana Fedorova, who together with her brother and sisters found a new father and a mother, and her sister Dayana, who new father called his own child (a documentary about this family was filmed in 2011).
The opinions expressed in the article convey the author’s terminology and views and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editorial staff
