Learning the hard way

18 June 2011 Last updated at 23:57 GMT By Damien McGuinness BBC News, Tbilisi History teacher Davit Bragvadze was reported for laughing and joking with pupils after class Tackling violence in schools is a challenge in many countries. The Georgian government has taken a typically robust approach, putting uniformed officers in the classroom. It has had some success - but is also provoking unease.

Sunshine pours in through the high-arched windows of the immaculately restored 19th Century building on to the faces of laughing children as they stream into class.

It is hard to imagine that Georgian schools like this were once places of fear - bullying was rife and, according to the UN, more than 47% of children said they had been victims of physical violence, mainly from their fellow pupils.

In one month alone in 2007, four children died as a result of extremely violent bullying.

Many students had started taking knives to school to protect themselves.

But that was before the government stepped in.

One thousand uniformed officers, trained by police, are now stationed in all urban schools.

'Like wild animals' Some 1,000 guards patrol Georgian schools

"If some schoolchildren disrupt classes, we talk to them," said Mukhran Guliashvili, one of the officers.

"We have had special training, including psychological training, so we know how to deal with children."

Three officers patrol each school. They cannot arrest the children, but their reports can lead to a child being expelled.

And, because the officers change school every couple of weeks, it is easier for them to remain neutral figures of authority.

Pupils say the scheme appears to have worked.

"Before they came here, it was a very bad situation because children were like wild animals," said one teenage girl.

"Now they are calm."

Another girl said: "The school wasn't safe. Of course the atmosphere is better now. There is more studying going on now than before."

Crackdown on laughter?

But history teacher Davit Bragvadze is less convinced.

As he jokes with pupils, it is clear he is the sort of inspirational teacher that brings his subject to life. But whenever the discussion gets too lively, officers come into his classroom to complain.

And one even reported Mr Bragvadze to the authorities for laughing and joking with his pupils after class.

Lali Kiknadze lost her job of 20 years

"I don't feel good," he said.

"It's not good for me, it's not good for the lesson, and it's not good for the educational process. It's bad for it."

For Lali Kiknadze, having officers in school has led to even worse consequences.

She has gone to court in an attempt to get her job back.

When an officer had wanted to report a colleague for forgetting the class registration book in the staff room, Ms Kiknadze objected.

The officer then reported her to the authorities, accusing her of not supporting the government's reforms.

After a 20-year career, she was fired.

Her lawyer, Tamar Gabisonia, who also runs a human rights organisation, said officers regularly overstep the mark by interfering with teachers' work.

"It seems to be like a police regime in the school. And that's why they think they have a lot of power and they excessively use their force."

Heavy hand

Ms Gabisonia believes stationing uniformed officers in school is all part of a wider problem in Georgia: that the government takes a heavy-handed approach when it feels public order is threatened.

Human rights organisations say this was shown in May, when to make way for independence day celebrations, police officers dispersed an anti-government protest being held in front of parliament.

They fired rubber bullets into a crowd and are accused of beating journalists and peaceful protesters.

The police are accused of overreacting by indiscriminately using violence, and this has undermined the government's credibility here.

Now EU and UN officials are calling for an investigation into whether the police used excessive force.

But the government says the demonstrators were not peaceful and it is true that hundreds were masked and armed with heavy sticks.

As police started approaching, some protestors smashed bottles to use as weapons, telling the BBC they were willing to fight.

May's rally, which towards the end threatened to get out of control, showed how hard it is for Georgian authorities to combat violence, while at the same time upholding civil liberties.

Popular scheme

Dimitri Shashkin, Georgia's education minister, has no doubts that by placing officers in schools, he is achieving both these aims.

He argues that the scheme supports teachers by allowing them to concentrate on teaching, leaving officers to worry about security.

"They don't have weapons, they have a special uniform," he said.

"And, as the polls show, 85% of the population support this reform, and 81% say that our schools are now safe. It has huge support among the people."

Meanwhile, back at the school students clearly appreciate how much safer school is, thanks to the officers.

But as they report directly to the government, the officers are also seen as more influential than teachers.

Human rights organisations say this is worrying proof that the state here is becoming too powerful.

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Learning space

13 May 2011 Last updated at 17:04 GMT By Reeta Chakrabarti Education correspondent, BBC News Dream School and Public School 38 have to negotiate sharing a gym, auditorium, cafeteria and playground between them Free schools, started by groups of parents or teachers, could be set up in existing schools with surplus places.

It's an idea that's been adopted in the United States - and the BBC has learnt that at least one group setting up a free school in England is looking at this option.

Free schools have been one of the coalition government's flagship policies - small independent schools that are publicly funded - but could the idea of a "school within a school" work?

The Dream School in New York is a living example.

It's a Charter school - part of the movement cited as an inspiration for free schools - and shares a block in East Harlem with an existing state school, Public School 38.

Ms Colavito says 'everyone's clamouring for more space'

The two schools have to negotiate over use of the cafeteria, the gym, the auditorium and the playground.

'Infringing'

On one floor where they share the same corridor, Dream School has painted its walls bright orange to mark the demarcation between its own space and the brown state school walls.

Its principal, Eve Colavito, says sharing the space is "challenging".

"Everyone's clamouring for more space," she says. "Everyone wants to use the gym or the cafeteria or the outside space at the same time."

One of the big challenges is that the Dream School set up in the block in 2008, whereas State School 38 had been there for years, she says, which "made it feel to them that we were infringing on their space".

Orange and brown paint marks the different schools' corridor space

Dream School was only permitted to move into the building because there was under-enrolment in Public School 38.

But Dream School is growing, with two new classes being added annually - encroaching further on the territory of the older school.

Ms Colavito says that last year someone "drummed up a bit of animosity", culminating in a protest by some state school pupils.

Co-existence is clearly not easy, and Dream School is planning to move out in the future.

Raising attainment

The idea of co-siting schools is at very early stages in England.

Partnerships for Schools, a government agency, is looking at identifying schools with surplus places which could be used - and at least one proposal in the pipeline is to co-site a free school within an existing one.

But the idea is not likely to be popular with schools that have surplus places, such as Mountfitchet Maths and Computing College in Essex.

Mountfitchet's results are improving, but it is still under capacity

It used to be in special measures because of low attainment by the pupils - but is now improving, under a new head.

Because of its past, it currently only has 419 pupils, well below its capacity of 600.

However, head teacher Catherine Anderson does not think a free school could work on her premises, as the surplus places are within existing classes.

"If you've got a larger building where you've got larger blocks that you can allocate to a free school, and it's a completely separate entity, then possibly it could work," she says.

And in relation to solving her own school's problems, she says: "If you look at a school like ours which had been in special measures, which needs to raise its attainment and to raise the aspiration of the students, it's that that will raise student numbers."

'Idealistic'

Free schools were one of the government's big ideas to shake up the system.

The Conservatives had talked about 220,000 free school places in ten years.

But just four have so far entered into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State - the final bureaucratic hurdle - and only 10-20 free schools are expected to open in September.

With the budget for new buildings and refurbishment relatively small at ?50 million, the emphasis has been on setting them up in old buildings.

But finding the right site and getting planning permission has proved difficult for some.

Ms Anderson says she has spaces in individual classes, rather than spare classrooms

Even supporters of free schools acknowledge that the take-up has been disappointing - others question whether they could really bring much improvement to the education system overall.

Professor Alan Smithers, from the University of Buckingham, says that, because of the energy and enthusiasm required to set them up, free schools are likely to be "very good" and to "become magnets for committed pupils and parents".

But this means neighbouring schools are likely to lose their more able pupils, he says.

"Weak schools are likely to become even weaker. You may say that's a good thing. It's not such good news if your child happens to be in that school for most of his or her school career," he says.

But Education Secretary Michael Gove is bullish. He argues that free schools will drive up standards, and that additional money given to a struggling school is not likely to be used effectively.

"Sometimes you need to say 'thank you and goodnight'," he says.

And he thinks co-siting could be an effective use of the existing school stock.

"One of the things we want to do with the free schools programme is to make sure that idealistic people - particularly teachers - who want to improve state education have the opportunity to do so.

"There are some opportunities I suspect in the future where we have classrooms that aren't being used, where you could have a primary next to a secondary, where we could make sure all parents have a wider choice of schools for their children," he says.

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