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Anastasia Balezdrova
    Three decades after their opening, the sports high schools in Greece are about to be closed down because, according to the Ministry of Education, they were "unproductive for sport and pedagogically incorrect in terms of education", and their maintenance costs a lot of money. With a decision of the deputy minister Evi Christofilopoulou sports classes will be closed down as early as this academic year in the cases when a problem arises with either appointment of teachers, or with the transportation of pupils to the practice locations. A mandatory prerequisite to keep the sports classes is that in each class to have at least 12 students.
    According to Nikos Papahristos, Secretary General of the Federation of the secondary education figures, the ministry has already started working for the closure of sports schools in two ways: by failing to allocate funds for the transportation of pupils to the schools and by not appoint teachers for the less popular sports. "Thus, parents need to drive their children to the schools which are one in few neighborhoods. Children on the other hand do have an obligation to attend classes in sports for which there are teachers".
    GRReporter seek the opinion of one parent. Panagiotis Stefanidis’ daughter is a student in the sports school in the Athens district of Neo Iraklio, and he himself is a member of the board of parents and guardians.

    What is your opinion of the closure of sports schools?

The problem with sports schools seems to be occurring now, but it started two years ago. Each academic year sports lessons started late. To the question we asked the ministry about whether to enroll our children this year we received a positive response and that there will be no problems. Once again, however, initiation of sports was delayed until the end of October. In our meeting with the supervisor for sports schools in the ministry of education, he informed us that there is a problem with the transportation of children to the schools and places of training. Along with this was released an announcement informing the schools that the Ministry ceases to be responsible for transportation of the children and that this will be undertaken by other institutions, mainly by the municipalities. When we asked the mayors, however, they told us they did not know anything about this issue and they have no funds to cover such transportation.

    Who transports the children now?

    Their parents. And note that sports classes have not yet begun. Last Monday, we visited again in the ministry officer, who informed us of the existence of a law from the year 1993 whereby, in order to have sports classes there must be a specific number of students - athletes. I.e. if in a sports school are taught three sports and children - athletes are for example 45 they should be distributed 15 in each class. This is impossible to happen even in traditional schools, let alone in the sports ones. Until today the law has never been applied, but now officials use it as a pretext.
    It is more than obvious that they want to close down the sports schools. The fact that we found an issue of Government Gazette from 15 October this year, in which was published a decision on the closure of most sports schools in the country is also tragicomic. Until last week, however, we did not know anything about this matter, nor were we told anything during our visits in the ministry. This is a mockery".

    Councils of parents and guardians of several sports schools in the region of Athens, will hold a protest in front of the Ministry of Education next Thursday. In it will take part parents, students and teachers, and the message will be sent to as many schools as possible in order to be informed of the upcoming events. According to data of the ministry during the past academic year students in sports schools throughout the country were 12,060 and the teachers were 2,036. All their activities cost the state budget 25 million euros. Out off this amount, the cost of transportation of the students were about 2.4 million euros.
    The decision of the ministry mentioned that next year the connection between the 145 schools and sports will be revised. "We put the student - athlete in the center of our attention. The development of the sports talent is going happen along with an appropriate education so that students - athletes to keep up with the studies of their classmates". Until then students - athletes from the closed sports classes will be moved into mainstream classes in their schools or in any other school they want.
    According to the Federation of secondary education figures, however, the ministry also intends to close down the schools with lower number of students which are located mainly in mountainous areas. Then the children will have to be transported to municipal centers with buses and taxis using the not so good road network in these places, and along with this, teachers with temporary contracts or hourly wage will be left unemployed.
    Members of the union believe that along with the closure of the sports classes around 2000 teachers of physical education will remain unemployed, and starting with the next year about 4500 teachers in all subjects with temporary contracts will not enter the classrooms. Forecasts of the union for the future of education in Greece in those conditions are pretty bleak and they believe that the economic policy of the government will reduce to a great extent the quality of education, "although our country has never been renowned for its great achievements, unfortunately".
    The Federation of secondary schools figures will participate in the common Greek strike of the union next Wednesday and programmed their own protest after the holidays.