05-09-16 Education Minister explains recent, planned reforms in Kathimerini interview

 Education, Research, and Religious Affairs Minister Nikos Filis’ interview with the Sunday edition of the newspaper Kathimerini and education reporter Apostolos Lakasas was published on September 4, 2016. The text of the interview follows.

You must feel comfortable ahead of the start of the new school year. The bar is low after last year’s problem under ministers Baltas and Kourakis, when 272 kindergartens remained closed on the day of the blessing [the first day of school].

We inherited a tradition by which for 30 years schools opened with great lacks in the number of educators and even books, as happened under the ministry of [Anna] Diamantopoulou. Moreover, the situation last year was due to well known, extraordinary political circumstances. Yet, if last year we had an excuse, this year the same does not apply. We are battling for the school year to start with the fewest possible problems. We have secured funding for the hiring of a total of 20,800 substitute teachers, most of whom will be hired before the start of the school year, on September 12.  In addition, we are trying to correct the skewed process of calculating vacancies and surplus staff, so that the planning of schools – to the greatest degree possible, as there will be reversals – can be completed by the time the first class bell rings.  

Still, kindergarten teachers charge that you increased their work schedule by 30 hours per week. Primary school teachers charge that you reduced the hours of the all-day primary school. Junior high school and high school teachers maintain that the three-hours cut from the weekly junior high school schedule reduces the hiring of teachers by 2,000. The reduced number of hours in the instruction of ancient Greek is linked to the lack of literature teachers. If we take into account certain other ‘minor cutbacks’, the number rises to 2,300. Are these assertions incorrect?

 Kindergarten teachers’ hours are not being increased. On the contrary, their teaching schedule was institutionalised, a demand that had lingered for decades. In junior high school, the reduction in the number of hours of ancient Greek involves exclusively the teaching from the original text, and in the first year of studies that was combined with an increase in modern Greek-language teaching hours. This choice reflects a pedagogical outlook that serves the aim of students learning to speak better modern Greek. We are working on a comprehensive restructuring of Greek-language teaching programmes. The question of ancient Greek instruction has diachronically been a central issue in educational reforms in our country.

In primary school education, did you abolish the Uniform Restructured Educational programme (EAEP), which was implemented in 40 percent of primary schools – a total of 1,437 – because it was expensive due to the multiplicity of teaching specialisations that it demanded? That is an equalisation downward.  

The abolition of EAEP and the establishment of the Uniform Type All-Day Primary School was motivated by reasons of equality between children, an equalisation upward. In this way, we ensure that we provide common objects of knowledge and teaching at primary schools nationwide, at schools with four or more teachers (arts, computers, foreign languages). That was combined with the abolition of the seventh teaching hour, about the pedagogical utility of which the educational community had expressed strong reservations, due to the fatigue of children and its brief teaching time (35 minutes).  Pedagogical considerations dictated the lightening of the weekly junior high school work load.

But fewer teachers than last year will be hired…

Under the Samaras government in 2014, there were 18,000 substitute teachers hired, in instalments, up until December. Last year there were 23,000and this year 20,800. Upon the completion of the first [bailout] evaluation by the institutions [lenders], the door is open for the hiring of 20,000 educators over a three-year period, beginning in September, 2017.   

 Under what system will they be hired? The current system is based on the examinations conducted by the Supreme Council for Civil Personnel Selection (ASEP), which the government programme in 2015 said it would abolish.

In the coming months, we will institutionalise a new system, in which long-term service will count in the appointment of substitutes, as experience is an educational capital for all teachers, while young people will be given an opportunity to secure a spot in public education.

 You have spoken of distortions in the management of personnel. What did you discover, which your predecessors had not made public?

I speak of petty partisan motives that serve to preserve a patronage system, which led to transfers to certain areas (e.g. Attica, Thessaly, Central Macedonia), without taking into account the need for educators. This created surplus staff, while in other regions there was a dramatic staff shortage. Various para-union behaviours contributed to this. The educational community knows…

You have spoken of ‘blank pages in school history textbooks’, saying that the events of the Greek Civil War are not taught. Will you proceed with a change in the curriculum?

For students in the third [and final] year of high school to learn that there was a Civil War in Greece two generations ago, they must reach page 145 of the history textbook which has a related paragraph, not more than 200 words. And it is not certain that the class material taught will even reach that point. We are speaking of a tragedy that has branded the course of the nation, of society, and of the state. Obviously, this is a sensitive issue that requires calm and respect for events, for the pain and memory of all Greeks. If the state continues to handle historical events with inhibition, how can we bolster national self-knowledge and reconciliation? The time has come for changes in the history curriculum.

You are promoting a secondary school system that increases the years of junior high school [from three] to four, and reduces the years of high school [from three] to two, in accordance with the International Baccalaureate model. That same model was proposed when [Anna] Diamantopoulou was minister, and it had not gone forward. It is considered expensive because it requires many teacher specialisations, while it also requires a change in mentalities and an administrative restructuring of schools. Have you studied these issues?

Reform, especially in the fields of education and health, is an expensive affair. There are many international practices that we shall study and adjust to Greek realities. In Greece right now, it is impossible to implement a 4+2 system. But it will be the foundation of a dialogue. We shall proceed step-by-step, beginning with the reform of the curriculum and teaching methods, first of all in the last two years of high school, with the aim of drastically reducing auxiliary private tutoring and incorporating the university admissions system inside the school. Other changes will also be required, such as the upgrading of technical-vocational education, and the restructuring of tertiary education, so that applicants will be admitted to faculties and not departments, and the mobility of university students will be increased.

Will the admissions system be changed? You were speaking of open admissions.

In reality, open admissions exist today, as 69 percent of applicants are admitted to tertiary education. The issue is the terms of admission. Nationwide (Panelladikes) exams must maintain their inviolable character. However, a new system must include a restructuring of universities. It must be decided whether candidates are admitted to faculties - which will increase their mobility – or into departments with a specific subject area, as now.

 That was also part of [former education minister] Diamantopoulou’s law, but it changed due to the reactions of universities. The same happened with University Councils, which in practice you drove to abolition. You previously spoke of international practice, and University Councils are an institution in most European countries.

The Diamantopoulou law is the direct opposite of our priorities, not only because it serves the idea of a “university-enterprise”, but also because it proved dysfunctional. As for the Councils, what did they produce? When were they evaluated, or even self-evaluated? We extended their term until 2017, because we wanted the university community to decide. I note the coincidence: Certain Council members resigned the day the education law was passed, giving the impression of a political diversion to help [main opposition leader Kyriakos] Mitsotakis. We are not the ones who triggered a crisis with the Councils. Others opted for that.

 Will the law on universities be changed?

There is a demand for the restoration of the dean’s council, which is understandable. We are discussing this because it addresses serious administrative problems at universities. In addition, university students can participate in the operation of university organs, as is the case in many other countries.

 The day university admissions results were announced, I asked for your reaction to the fact that a candidate was admitted to a faculty with a 1.5 grade point average, on a scale of 20. You spoke of an isolated result, but you conceded that the system has reached its limits. Will you restore the 10-point minimum grade point average for university admissions?

No, that would be mere patchwork. Secondary education, and especially high school, needs a broader reform.

Due to the requirement that Greece in 2018 must have a 3.5 percent primary surplus and the possibility that the government may not be able to achieve that, there is talk of early elections.

Enough elections were over the last year, and in all of them the people confirmed the same political direction. SYRIZA’s strategy for an exit from memorandums and the crisis is in line with domestic and international conditions. The main domestic precondition is political stability, in combination with economic growth and social justice. The licenses for television channels mark the prevalence of legality and transparency and constitute a new political starting point for the government. The external precondition is to effect changes in Europe. In the coming days, upon the initiative of the prime minister, there will be a meeting of the leaders of the Mediterranean countries in the EU. In 2017, there will be crucial electoral battles in large countries. Consequently, we may expect a mobility that does not concern only European leaderships, but also the electoral base, as developments may again make hope a priority.

They accuse you of ideological obsession and political amoralism in dealing with private schools. Why do you believe parents send their children to private schools?

Perhaps this may serve them, or they may have the false impression that they are better than public schools, or because they may want the child to make acquaintances. I do not understand why we are ideologically obsessed and political amoralists. The role of the ministry is oversight of the entirety of education. If someone should apologise, it is New Democracy, which alone with Golden Dawn chose to vote down the provisions on private education. In Parliament, a climate of consensus was formed, for the first time so broadly on a bill tabled by SYRIZA. New Democracy, in refusing to support changes that had been institutionalised by [New Democracy founder] Constantine Karamanlis in 1977, confirmed that it has an identity problem. The neo-liberalism of Mr. Mitsotakis shows that he agrees with the old criticism of extreme circles that the radical liberalism of the first period of New Democracy was “socialmania”. Today, in New Democracy they are discussing the proposal of private school owners for the state to provide vouchers so that parents can choose whatever school they like, private or public. This constitutes public funding of private schools.  Such a measure, in the few countries where it was enforced, was accompanied by a reduction in the funding of public education, and the creation of multiple-gear schools, thus heightening educational and social inequalities. That is who is ideologically obsessed and politically amoral.    

 Does the decision of a parent to send their child to a private school have a neo-liberal, ideological orientation?

No. There are many good private schools which know that if they comply with the law they themselves are the winners. There are also bad ones, which through extreme penny pinching downgrade the course of studies.