“Education is where everything will be judged for the coming decades” emphasized the Minister of Education, Religion and Sports Kyriakos Perrakakis from the floor of the Parliament, in the speech in the context of the debate on the Programmatic Statements of the Government on Saturday, July 8, 2023.

The Minister analyzed the outline of the government’s work in the field of education, which extends to all levels of education.

In particular, Kyriakos Pierrakakis pointed out the critical importance of pre-school education and cited the sections and reforms that have been launched both in it, as well as in A’thmia and B’thmia, with special reference to the reform of the framework of Special Education and emphasis in the possibilities of operating private universities.

As Kyriakos Pierrakakis pointed out, according to ERT, “we believe in removing the state monopoly in Higher Education Institutions and we will seek to change article 16 of the Constitution».

Society, said Mr. Pierrakakis, asks us to step on the accelerator and not the brake, and that’s what we will do. We will also open the door to non-state universities because this is a demand of society.

Mr. Iliopoulos from SYRIZA intervened there saying that if you open this we will have exclusion of social sociability for all students and at the same time tuition fees in public universities.

Also, the minister made a special mention of teachers of all levels, characterizing them as a critical infrastructure of our educational system” and spoke of 4,000 to 5,000 new teacher hires per year as well as increases in teacher and professor salaries.

Among other things, the Minister announced:

• the creation of curricula for special education school structures – appropriately weighted in terms of the type of special educational needs,
• the extension of the application of the all-day school until 5:30 p.m. and the extension of its application to kindergartens and primary schools throughout the country,
• the formation of a program for internationally recognized language and digital skills certificates,
• upgrading the building infrastructure of the country’s schools,
• the staffing of school units with increasingly permanent staff,
• the strengthening of technical and professional education which will emphasize the combination of the forces of EPAL, IEK and Laboratory Centers through a law – framework, which will emphasize the combination of the forces of EPAL, IEK and Laboratory Centers,
• the development of recovery fund and NSRF programs for higher education and research, which far exceed 1 billion euros,
• exploring the possibility of concluding transnational educational agreements – these agreements that can be made on the basis of article 28 of the Constitution can result in educational institutions operating in other countries being established and through branches officially in our country and enjoying in the Greece parity with Greek universities, based on the strictest criteria that will be set by ETHAAE
• the strengthening of lifelong learning through a 6-month study program in informatics that graduates from schools other than informatics will be able to follow
• the preparation of the National Action Plan for the fight against Anti-Semitism, while finally the intention of cooperation with the Church with respect to the distinct institutional roles.
In closing, Kyriakos Pierrakakis noted that “the fate of Greece, the fate of its people, is to open to the sea. We have absolutely nothing to fear. This is the bet of this generation. To become a protagonist in the new national jumps. And this bet will win.”