The report on the work of the Ministry of Education over the past four years was presented by the Minister Niki Kerameosin the presence of the prime minister Kyriakou Mitsotakisat an event held at the Athens Concert Hall earlier this Monday afternoon.

“There is a quiet revolution going on in education. Big changes are finally happening and we can look citizens in the eye and tell them that we are putting into practice what we talked about in 2019,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized in his greeting.

“Our goal, original and eternal, is to provide our children with better and bigger things so they can play a leading role in a rapidly evolving world. Become creative and active citizens. Fulfill their dreams, conquer the peaks they desire. May they be happy.” This was emphasized by the Minister of Education and added that the main goal is “the next generation will be much better than ours.”

The first goal, announced in November 2018, was that “all students, regardless of financial ability, have equal opportunity at the start of their lives and access to quality public education.” In this context, as mentioned by Ms. Kerameos, the extension of the full-time school from 16:00 to 17:30, English in kindergarten, preparation of courses with a national exam in the school, the operation of double standards and pilot schools throughout the country, significant support students with disabilities, refugee and immigrant children, and low-income students by doubling their housing allowance and providing digital equipment to more than 665,000 educational community beneficiaries.

At the second level, the goal of the leadership of the ministry was to make the school a modern creative hive of knowledge and innovation. In this context, new school curricula, a bank of subjects in high school, and quality alternatives are included through two computer programs: one leads to 180 modern in-demand specialties of state IECs, and the other to university entrance. university with enhanced facilities such as double and joint degrees, vocational masters, industrial doctorates, internal Erasmus.

The third goal of the ministry, investment in education human resources and in this direction, 25,000 permanent teacher appointments were made in 12 years, 6,000 of which in special education and education, as well as 150,000 horizontal training, doubling psychologists and school social workers and evaluation school departments and teachers, “with confidence in our teachers, with a willingness to recognize their work, with the possibility of professional development or mandatory training where necessary,” Ms. Kerameos said. In addition, 1,850 new professorships have been granted to universities from 2019 to present, and universities have been given the opportunity to become more outward-looking. “Our country has acquired English-speaking students, leading universities from countries such as the US and the UK are opening branches in our country, building more and more partnerships with our own excellent universities,” the minister said.

The fourth pillar of reform concerns the flexibility and freedom afforded to school units.

“We have strengthened the autonomy of the school division by giving greater freedom of movement to the headmaster, by establishing subsidiary bodies, we have established a new management model in vocational education and training, we have established a new management model for the university, and restored the refuge to its true meaning, creating a university environment of freedom and security, putting the end of decades of occupation, returning the university to where it really belongs: to students, to its staff, to society,” the minister said.

Further, Ms. Kerameos mentioned “improvement of educational infrastructure and modernization of digital equipment.”

“Today we have more than 90,000 tablets and laptops for every school in the country, 665,000 children, youth and all teachers have received vouchers for the purchase of digital equipment, 177,000 robotics kits are starting to be delivered these days to all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. schools of the country and 36,000 interactive whiteboards in all lyceums and gymnasiums of the country, as well as in grades 5 and 6 of elementary school, we provide faster Internet in all schools and special advanced technological equipment for students with disabilities and special education needs,” said minister.

He also emphasized that “the budget for education in these years has exceeded 6 billion, while we have achieved a double absorption of NSRF resources from 46% (2019) to 91% (2022).”

Finally, Ms. Kerameos noted that in recent years, “procedures have been simplified and bureaucracy reduced.”

“Among other things, the results of national exams are also sent via SMS, teachers are recruited digitally, we have developed a digital platform for communication between the school and parents, teachers are informed via text message on their mobile phone about their placement, we have simplified the process. recognition of academic qualifications through DOATAP, we have created a more flexible framework for ELKE, we have created a National Qualifications Framework to certify the qualifications of vocational education and training graduates. We distribute funding among our universities according to clear, objective and high-quality criteria, and not according to the arbitrary judgment of each minister, as it was before,” the minister said.

“Our work in the field of education has been available to everyone for 4 years now. Use it, judge it, rely on the achievements of education, which we really consider as a legacy for the future,” he concluded.

During the event, a discussion was held with teachers, parents, students who told their personal stories about the innovations introduced in recent years in Education.

With information from APE-MPE