Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke today with the students of the High School in Gavdos.

In the morning, the Prime Minister spoke via video conference with the two students of the 3rd High School, their mother and one of the teachers of the independent class of the High School in Gavdos, which resumed its operation this year after many years.

“We are very happy that we have succeeded and put into practice what we had talked to you about some time ago and we now have a normal school in Gavdos, with physical presence of teachers and technological support where necessary.

What we want is for you to stay on the island and for the children to be able to finish school on the island, and that is why we came up with this hybrid format with physical presence of teachers for three courses and with the possibility of support from the teachers for the courses as well which will be done online.

The important thing is that this is a model now that we can adopt elsewhere, because we also have the Arches of the year when we will apply the same model. And of course if there is a need on a very small island to build this hybrid High School with a physical presence so that there is supervision by a teacher, we will try it elsewhere.

I hope others who may be thinking of coming to beautiful Gavdos see it and now know that their needs can be met in secondary education as well.

I wish you a good start, hopefully we’ll see you again when we come”the Prime Minister said.

In the discussion, with his participation Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Deputy Minister Zetta Makristhe importance of the reopening of the Gavdos High School, which is also equipped with an interactive board, was highlighted, mainly for the students and their families, but also for the society of the island as a whole.

The “autonomous classes”, one of the 11 key changes in education from the school year 2024-25, are a hybrid model of education that significantly upgrades the education provided in the particularly remote areas of the country. This is a regulation that concerns students who live in particularly remote areas, where the conditions for establishing a High School are not met.

Now, in these areas they will teach with fphysical presence of three teachers of basic specialtieswhile the rest of the courses will be taught through modern distance education, by teachers of the nearest High School to which the autonomous class belongs. For the students of Gavdos, the distance teaching of the remaining courses takes place in connection with the Chora Sfakion High School.

From the next school year (2025-2026) the Arkios will also have an autonomous class, while the arrangement will be extended to high school classes as well.