Greek Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou (R) and
alternate Minister Fofi Gennimata (L)

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Gennimata also referred extensively to the problems with the current system, especially arguing that clientelist politics had dominated the appointment of teachers abroad, many of whom were not qualified to teach language courses but specialised in subjects such as music, art or sports. Others, meanwhile, had an inadequate grasp of the language used in the host-country. She also highlighted the very high cost of the system, noting the payroll cost for teachers detached abroad had risen from 38 million euro for 1,650 teachers in 2004 to 46 million euro for 2,350 teachers in 2009.

After factoring in the additional cost of supply teachers to replace those sent abroad, the total additional cost to the state rose to 22 million euro, she claimed. The minister stressed problems such as inability to effectively monitor the running of schools abroad, leading to abuses of public money, or the fact that Greek-language schools often did not grant qualifications equivalent to those of the host-country and their students were only able to apply to universities in Greece in a special category.

Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou answered questions about suggested mergers of small, remote schools and emphasised that these would be based solely on educational criteria. She also commented on the suspension of school sports competitions, saying that this was temporary in view of a complete overhaul of the way that sports will be taught in schools and that Technological Educational Institutes forced to close due to financial problems had received cash injections and were now operating as usual.

Source: ANA/MPA