“The funding given this year for the public university she is very big and exceeds one billion euros“, pointed out the Minister of Education, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, characterizing as “inaccurate, imaginary scenarios and fake news”, the accusations against the government for underfunding, degradation and discrediting of public universities, with the aim of strengthening private education.

During the debate in the Plenary of the Parliament, of the bill of the Ministry of Education, for the “strengthening and upgrading of vocational education and training”, Mr. Pierrakakis defended the new legislative initiatives promoted by the government, stressing that the current reform is a first of many more to come.

“The framework, as a whole, of the reform that must be done in education, must touch everything and that is why we want to put a lot of emphasis and additional weight on vocational education and training through the bill we are bringing today. It is an opportunity that as a country we must take advantage of,” said the Minister of Education.

At the same time, he attacked those who react and protest against the changes in higher education, saying:

“Many inaccuracies, many imaginary scenarios have been heard in the last few days, and among them there is one, that we are allegedly reducing funding to public universities with the aim of some imaginary degradation.

This is obviously not the case and no member of the government says so, but the numbers speak for themselves.

In 2018 the funding, through the regular budget of public universities in Greece, it was 92 million euros.

Last year, it exceeded 133 million euros, recording an increase of 41 million euros. So, every year from 2018 onwards, public funding is increasing, while from 2015-2018 every year it was decreasing.”

Mr. Pierrakakis continued: “Let me say that this funding does not always depend on the condition of our will but on the budgetary conditions and whoever governs this place knows this well.

We also know that in addition to the regular budget, there are other additional financial tools, such as the Public Investment Program, the NSRF, the Recovery Fund, while there are also PPPs”.

As Mr. Pierrakakis underlined, “from the Recovery Fund, especially now I am indicating that public universities will receive an additional 113 million euros for the purchase of research equipment and the strengthening of innovative activity”.

“It’s like a second regular budget targeted at research, and of course additional funds from the NSRF in the order of 300 million euros, and about 700 million in PPPs for national centers. If one adds these up, the funding given to the public university is very large and exceeds one billion euros”, emphasized the Minister of Education and added:

“Should it be increased further? Vertically yes. No one in this room will disagree with that, but beyond that, to say that there is a degradation of their funding, when the funding is systematically increasing, is nothing but fake news.”

“We need to get the country moving. There will be a dialogue. But what will be even more will be momentum, speed, a reforming direction and a mood for very big changes”, concluded Mr. Pierrakakis.