For the changes it promotes Ministry of Education in education with the digital school and digital tutorial that were presented yesterday in Imathia, spoke to SKAI and to the show “Kalimera” with Dimitris Oikonomou, the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

As Mr. Pierrakakis said, “these are policies that use digital media to improve the school in an auxiliary way. The teacher, teacher and student relationship is the core of education and that will never change. Technology is something that helps. We take advantage of these means and define a new strategy.”

The Minister of Education described the “Digital School” as an overall educational plan, a part of which is the Digital Tutoring, the implementation of which is being implemented gradually and the posting of educational videos in Mathematics and Language has already started for the 1st and 2nd High Schools. “The digitization of the material has already started and we will be uploading videos.” Regarding live tutoring, Mr. Pierrakakis emphasized that more than 80 teachers will be assigned to the Ministry of Education and will teach the lessons in the afternoons. According to Mr. Pierrakakis, the live tutorials will start in September,” he said.

“Whatever our will is, without the Recovery Fund, without European resources, we would not have the budget to start it,” he added.

“From the 1st Primary to the 3rd Lyceum, students will be able to refer to short educational videos for all subjects and be supported in the learning process by teachers who will digitally describe the course,” he said.

Continuing, he clarified that “the live tutoring is another matter and concerns the large classes of the Lyceum, especially the 3rd Lyceum. Professors seconded to the Ministry of Education where all the technical infrastructure is available will conduct live tutoring to students from all over the country who will be able to connect to the platform and attend a live tutoring course completely free of charge. Its launch will take place in September 2024.”

He also revealed details about the platform for parents that is already being created and with it “the parent will be able to know at any time the performance of his child in classes, the absences but also will be able to make an appointment with the teacher for life or with videocall”.

Regarding the Digital Classrooms, which refer to children from extremely remote or hard-to-reach areas of the country (for example Gavdos), Mr. Pierrakakis stated that “in these cases, it is sought to have live teaching by 3 teachers of the basic courses and the remaining courses to they are done digitally by teachers or professors of the nearest basic-supervisory school”.

Finally, referring to the interactive digital boards, he argued that “they will be placed in every department, every school across the country. We need about 34,000 such boards and already about 21,000 have been installed and are working.”

Asked about his visit to the Vatican and the Monastery of Chora, the Minister of Education replied that “The issue was raised in the Vatican. I was told that it is the first visit of the Minister of Education. A series of issues were raised by the Greek delegation, with the first issue being the Monastery of Chora. As a matter of fact, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, historic temples cannot be converted into mosques. There must be specific criteria, which we follow by following the protocols.”

Regarding the European elections, Mr. Pierrakakis argued that “the messages are very good and very encouraging” and assessed that “the goal set by the Prime Minister is achievable.”