Sweeping changes in all levels of education are introduced with an omnibus bill the Greek Education Ministry presented on Thursday.
Teachers and professors will not be evaluated, the university asylum is brought back, “eternal students” will remain, the state will be regulating teaching material and operating hours of private tutoring and foreign language schools, there will be schools for students with special needs, new requirements for high-school principals’ appointment will be established, poor students will be getting a “food card” for meals and teaching material in private schools will be decided by the state. These are the main points of the new education bill.
Instead of an evaluating system for teachers and professors, there will be committees that will be discussing ways of improving education.
In universities, deans and rectors will be elected by professors, students and university staff. Students who remain enrolled but do not attend classes or take exams will remain enrolled and their status will not change. The “university asylum” establishes that the police cannot enter university buildings.
Schools for exemplary students and experimental schools will be separated since they were merged in the past, but their naming will change.
The teaching material of private schools and high schools will be state-regulated. Also the operating hours and the material of private tutoring schools and foreign language schools will be regulated by the Education Ministry.
The draft bill also includes several measures that are sports-related, since the Sports Ministry is under the Education Ministry. Additionally, culture-related issues are in the new bill since the Culture Ministry is also under the Education Ministry.
Education Minister Aristidis Baltas said the bill has already been presented to SYRIZA’s Parliamentary Group and it will be made public in a few days.
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