The philosophical school of Athens asks to be released from the application of the new framework of teaching and pedagogical competence. Other liberal arts and science schools in the country are also responding to the restructuring that was voted on over the summer. We are talking about tens of thousands of students and graduates of the so-called “pedagogical” schools, that is, those whose main professional perspective is education. What is at stake is how middle and high school teachers will be trained to teach their subjects. The interpretation of the reaction is that faculty do not want to enforce a law that would remove academic subjects from departments, resulting in the need to create new ones to fill the gaps. Thus, they tend not to implement the provision immediately, hoping that the next government will change it. At the same time that said K. residents of the University of Jerusalem, lies in the fact that the opposition to the EKPA “hides” the tug-of-war of professors in the faculties of pedagogy and philosophy behind a rich public discourse. “This is a constant request from educators to strengthen their presence at the university,” said yesterday “K” to a student of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens, foreseeing that “the scope of actions that need to be taken to start implementing the decree from September 2023 is so large that the Ministry of Education will not have time to complete them before the announcement of national elections.” “They don’t want to lose, skip classes and power relationships within the faculty,” opposes head “K” of the Ministry of Education. In particular, the relevant provision of Law 4957/2022 provides as follows:

• Each university, by decision of the Senate, may operate a special program of pedagogical and pedagogical excellence, the successful completion of which leads to the issuance of the appropriate certificate. The program will have a minimum duration of two academic semesters and will be equivalent to a minimum of 60 credits.

• A special program will be provided under the supervision of a faculty or department of education sciences that exists at the university. If an institution does not have an appropriate faculty, an inter-university curriculum can be created. Each university can operate exclusively a special program of pedagogical and pedagogical skills.

Under the new regime, students who wish to obtain a teaching qualification for admission to the school must attend courses from the Department of Educational Sciences.

• The program accepts: a) already studying at various faculties (eg physics, mathematics, biology, etc.), whose diploma entitles them to exercise the professional rights of a teacher of secondary, post-secondary or vocational education. The condition is that they have “passed” three-year courses and scored at least 180 credits (out of 240 in total for the entire program) and b) graduates of “pedagogical” faculties.

In summary, with the new regime, those students who want to gain teaching skills in order to qualify for a place in the school must attend courses in the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the university. The curriculum of each faculty now has corresponding courses. In addition, if they wish to be able to work in positions other than education, they must complete four years of study and complete an additional year of pedagogy. As for pedagogical schools, they should reform their curriculum.

The Philosophy of Athens, for its part, says: “On the basis of Article 456 of Law 4957/2022, the abolition of official gazettes from 08/31/2023 (note: these are official gazettes, on the basis of which all departments of Philosophy of Athens have special pedagogical courses – pedagogical content) creates quite large problems, especially for students already studying, as their guaranteed (based on the year of entry) professional rights are canceled without issuing, at least to date, the necessary circulars to study special programs that will offer courses in pedagogical and didactic skills. These courses are designed for 60 credits (ECTS), that is, for one year of study, compared to 30 credits today. In addition to lowering the courses of the special cognitive object of the departments of the Faculty of Philosophy, non-scientific documentation for the improvement of courses in pedagogy and pedagogical skills from 30 to 60 ECTS, from a scientific point of view, it is not clear why attending the courses of the “Special Curriculum for EITI” involves the successful passing of exams for courses of duration three academic years (note: this condition will delay the graduation of many students). Among other things, EKPA Faculty of Philosophy members unanimously support that courses already included in existing and certified curricula leading to a PDE should continue to be recognized as providing pedagogical and teaching competence.” .

How can we have good teachers?