By Afrodity Giannakis
ATHENS — High school students throughout Greece are continuing their struggle against the government's education bill 2525. The campaign, which kicked off in November, is dynamic and persistent. Hundreds of schools remain occupied by students and there are weekly demonstrations of thousands. A national day of action against the bill brought 100,000 students onto the streets on January 15.
Act 2525 will dismantle what is left of public education in Greece (already Greek parents pay for 72.5% of the cost of high school education). It is an attempt by the PASOK government to enforce austerity on the people.
The act aims to cut the number of students able to study the final years of school and at university.
A major clause in the bill is a series of new year 8 and 9 exams which will count for 30% towards university admission. At the moment, if students do badly at their exams there are a number of other chances to get into university.
The government plans to cut places at the lyceums from 125,000 to 80,000 and to cut university places. Students who miss out will be shifted into technical colleges. Students have complained that this will force poorer students, who cannot afford private tuition, out of higher education.
Teachers are also opposed to the legislation. The new teacher hiring system will abolish the waiting list, which was based on seniority, and replace it with a system based on "merit". Teachers will be subject to ongoing examinations throughout their work, undermining their university degrees.
The demands of the students are:
- repeal act 2525;
- reverse the privatisation of education;
- increase the provision in the budget for education to 15%;
- increase numbers of teachers and defend their working conditions;
- decrease class sizes.
The students have two aims: to block the new act and to improve the education system as a whole. This has set students on a collision course with the government, which is trying to force through a neo-liberal agenda in the hope of making Greece comply with the criteria for membership of the European monetary union.
Previous attempts at education restructuring have been passed by the government because of the weak leadership of the teachers' union, the OLME. Over the last 10 years, teacher levels have been cut and class sizes have grown.
In the current struggle, the leadership of the OLME has been forced to run a strong campaign because of the militant struggle launched by students and the confidence this has provoked in the ranks of the union. A new round of joint teacher and student actions was to start on January 25.
The minister for education, Gerasimos Arsenis, declared at the beginning of the campaign that he would not meet with students until they went back to class. Because the campaign has maintained its momentum, he has now backed down and agreed to meet with students to discuss their demands.