27-07-16 Tsipras names education as key priority in social reconstruction

Addressing the Governmental Council on Social Policy, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared that the government took over a bankrupt and socially ravaged country, and that his government has set seven pillars for the reconstruct ion of the social state.

In that regard, the PM  stressed the government’s intensive efforts to strengthen support for education, including the establishment of new, much-needed special education schools. Education, Research and Religious Affairs Minister Nikos Filis sat to the immediate left of the prime minister, an apparent symbolic gesture to underline the government’s emphasis on education reform.

He noted the measures being taken to support general education schools as well, with the appointment of psychologists and social workers.

Alexis Tsipras also stressed ongoing intensive efforts and programmes to integrate the children of refugees in the regular Greek school system, with the hiring of 800 substitute teachers over the summer, many of whom will specialise in teaching Greek as a second language.