Tbilisi school providing only boys with stipends

The Yakoba Gogebashvili School awarded its eighth-graders with stipends for the 2017-2018 school year. However, only boys received the funds.

The girls had no opportunity to receive funds from the school.

The school explains that there are few eighth-graders in the school and that the giving of stipends could stimulate an increase in student transfers, and would thus ‘preserve the balance in the gender of the student body’.

The national ombudsman has already reacted to the event. The statement from the ombudsman’s office calls on the school to observe equality in its stipend programme.

“The initiative may give rise to gender inequality,” the statement reads.

The Yakoba Gogebashvili School is a private school that is owned by Levan Vasadze. Vasadze is known for his anti-Western and fundamentalist rhetoric.