New bill for education in Greece
Without the necessary protection measures for the pupils and tutors taken, the classes have started in the schools and universities of Greece. The workers in Greece, as well as the educators and teachers are on the streets every day protesting against the government measures against the workers and also protesting against the serious shortages in the health system.
Under the circumstances of the pandemic, the quarantine, the curfew and the prohibition of demonstrations, with the schools closed, the Greek government of N.D. presented a new bill for all levels of education with many measures planned at the expense of pupils, students, teachers, parents and at the expense of Education as a whole. PAME and the teachers started and continue their protests against the new bill, which has already been condemned and rejected by educators, parents, pupils and students.
With the new bill:
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- In the secondary education, the exams are being increased, the general education classes are being eliminated, the school is becoming more competitive and is focusing even more on the exams and the access to the Higher Education.
- English is being implemented as a pilot class in the kindergarten (in the ages when the children have not yet started processing the elements of their mother tongue), while „skill workshops“ are being implemented in all classes (among them, entrepreneurship also makes its presence), intensifying the fragmentation of Education.
- With the evaluation introduced, schools become class oriented, since it categorizes schools, pupils and teachers.
- The young teachers are being forced to work far from their families, with low wages and harsh conditions. If they deny the positions offered to them, they are being excluded from the system for two years.
- The privatization of university departments is being intensified and the transfers are being complicated.
- The number of pupils per class in the primary education are being increased, resulting to the elimination of classes, the mandatory transfer of pupils and teachers, the firings of substitute teachers. That way, the targets of OECD are being sped up regarding the increase of the average number of pupils per class and of course the conditions of the educational process are being worsened.
- The authoritarian education methods with penalties and notes of conduct as well as the multi-day expulsions are being reinforced once again in the name of student discipline! However, the conscious discipline, the participation in the educational process, the solidarity, the love for knowledge are values that are being cultivated in the school content itself, the goals and the values it cultivates.
- The funds for the support of the schools are being minimized.
The teachers have set a new date of demonstrations, with strikes planned on the 9th of June, so that all above-mentioned measures get cancelled and so that there is protest against the additional measures regarding the operation of cameras in the classrooms.
Chrisoula Lampoudi
Vice president of WFTU