Galery

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Anastasia Balezdrova 

The school bell rang today for over a million and three hundred thousand students in primary and secondary schools in Greece, but the year began with many unsolved problems, the most important of which is the lack of textbooks.

While worried first grade pupils and noisy teenagers were filling the schoolyards, the teachers’ union identified the starting school year as the worst in the modern history of Greece. Its chairman Komninos Mandas said that "someone should resign in connection with the situation with the lack of textbooks. The Minister of Education’s apology could make the desired impression from communication point of view, but the problems could not be solved so easily."

The teachers’ union data show that 22 municipal school committees have not received any textbooks during the first school day and another 46 received only a small part of them. "Given that the competition for the supply of paper was announced recently, the textbooks will not be ready even by Christmas. According to the head of the responsible department, the printing house is currently working with a printing paper, which has been held in storage so far. If they had addressed the problem in time, now about 40 per cent of the necessary textbooks would have been printed."

Unionists also indicated that 4703 jobs for children teachers in primary schools and teachers of special subjects are still unoccupied. "The names of the deputies were announced only last week. None of them is at the relevant school today, because the documentation must be made out first."

Underfunding of schools is an additional problem. Komninos Mandas said the municipal committees formed to replace the school boards have received only half of the allocated funds in recent years. "Only one out of the three installments for education this year was granted."

He expressed doubts that the funds will be sufficient to cover the cost of photocopies the students will receive due to the lack of textbooks. "We are in contact with the parent’s organizations that have already discussed the possibilities to provide materials such as chalk, paper, felt-tip pens and copying paper."

Unionists also referred to the cuts in teachers’ salaries. "Today, a newly appointed teacher receives a net salary of € 600 and their colleagues with long experience hardly get € 1,000 a month." According to Komninos Mandas, these resources are insufficient for a teacher appointed on the island or in a remote area of the country. "How could he move, pay rent and food for himself and his family with that money? We have announced that this will be a reason for a money "war". We were planning initially to strike from the beginning of the school year, but then decided it would be better to show the omissions by the ministry and then to turn to protests." The chairman of the union announced that teachers will hold a 24-hour warning strike on 22 September. "By 29 September, we will wait the local unions to make their proposals and then we will decide what actions to take. Even if we do not go on a strike, be sure that schools will close to November anyway due to lack of funds."

Even the staff responsible for cleanliness in schools is under question. "Aside from the cleaning women who are on permanent contracts, we do not even know who will recruit the others. Until last year, they signed 10-month contracts with the National Foundation for Youth, which is yet to be closed."

This year, the Ministry appointed only 133 teachers on permanent contracts. According to trade unionists, the last time when such a small number of teachers was appointed was back in 1950. "There was a precedent of today's problem with the textbooks in 1946. Since then, the state has always found money for the printing of textbooks even in very difficult times."

"Successful school year" wished the teachers' union to the Minister of Education, who was not accepted with enthusiasm at the school where she chose to wish the students a successful school year.

When Anna Diamantopulou came into the schoolyard, a group of parents accompanying their children began to make criticisms about the lack of textbooks. They did not stop shouting during the Minister's speech, who nonetheless promised that the problems would be solved in the coming days.

They stated from the teachers’ union that despite the problems the teachers would do anything they could to ensure better conditions for their students. "At the same time, however, we will do anything to expose the government and the Ministry of the incredible mess they made at school."