01-09-16 University admissions and private school regulation  in interview

In an interview with ERT1 state television, Alternate Education Minister Sia Anagnostopoulou addressed issues pertaining to the education reform bill passed by parliament the previous day.

Anagnostopoulou said that the new law revives a great issue, that education is a public good.

The minister also defended the state regulation of private schools, noting that it is not an ideological fixation, as opposition parties claimed, to have state oversight that protects educators from arbitrary layoffs. She noted that only main opposition New Democracy and Golden Dawn voted down the provision. “We don’t want teachers who are hostage to school owners and students,” she said, referring to cases where teachers may have been fired at the behest of influential parents who wanted grade inflation for their children.

She underlined that such state oversight was in place from 1974 to 2011, when then education minister Constantine Arvanitopoulos “absolutely deregulated education”.  She said this led to the firing of teachers with many years of experience,  so that younger teachers could be hired by lower salaries.

Anagnostopoulou also explained changes to a law passed by former education minister Anna Diamantopoulou, which required university faculties to expel students that had not registered for two consecutive semesters, noting that the provision had not been enforced by most universities. She said that students should still register each semester and declare that they wish to interrupt their studies if that is the case.  She also said that an individual administrative act is required to expel  any student .

Asked about proposed reforms of the university admissions system – such as entry based on the high school diploma grade point average or based on criteria set by an individual faculty – the minister said: “The admissions system has reached its limits. The last two years of high school must regain their educative role, and not be a mere antechamber for university.