Teachers at the Kythira General Lyceum have expressed strong dissatisfaction with the sudden verbal directive issued by the Piraeus Regional Education Directorate on September 18, 2024, which led to class mergers. As a result of this decision, students are being crammed into classes of 30, 27, and 26 students, in violation of the law that sets a maximum number of students per class and specifies special requirements for students with special needs.
It is also noted that the classrooms are unsuitable, as they do not meet safety and hygiene standards, particularly in an earthquake-prone area such as Kythira. The merger also affects the laboratories, while teachers are forced to work overtime and make involuntary transfers. The teachers are calling for the immediate reversal of the decision, warning of serious consequences for the quality of education and the students’ well-being. Read the teachers’ letter:
Letter from teachers at the Kythira High School
It came as a bolt from the blue—the sudden verbal order we received on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, from the Piraeus Regional Education Directorate Piraeus Regional Directorate of Education regarding the merger of departments, resulting in the students of the three grades of our high school being crammed into classes of 30, 27, and 26 students, respectively.
The aforementioned verbal directive conflicts with current legislation governing class sizes, student safety, and the smooth operation of the school. More specifically, pursuant to Article 116 of Law 4610/2019, with regard to students in the third grade of general high school, the number of students in a classroom may not exceed 25, and no exceptions are permitted.
Regarding the students in the 2nd grade of General High School, our school has students with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and pursuant to Article 11 of Law 4452/2017, the class must be divided.
At this point, it should be emphasized that the Special Education Advisor has recently approved the division of classes in this grade. Finally, regarding the students in the first year of general high school, at our school this class consists of 30 students (following the merger), a fact that also violates the law, as it does not provide for 30 students in a single classroom. Even in the exceptional case of increasing the number of students per class by 10%, the number still exceeds the legally permitted number of students in a classroom.
After all, according to Presidential Decree 79/2017, 2 square meters of floor space (i.e., excluding furniture) is required per person, not per student (i.e., including the teacher), a requirement that is violated by the current conditions in our school’s classrooms, which are not properly configured, to accommodate such a large number of students, thereby compromising the safety, hygiene, and protection of the students, especially considering that Kythira is an area with high seismic activity.
Furthermore, if and when the departments are merged, the Natural Sciences and Computer Science labs cannot be held due to a lack of the necessary space and equipment in those facilities.
Furthermore, the merger of departments has naturally resulted in the involuntary and sudden removal of a Classical Philology teacher from the high school, who, moreover, had been teaching advanced courses in the specialized tracks of the second and third years of high school), her reassignment to the middle school—for reasons unknown and at whose urging— the forced filling of teaching hours at the lower secondary school by colleagues from other subject areas at the high school and the assignment of overtime to the remaining high school teachers, resulting in their teaching load reaching up to 28 teaching hours per week.
In the age of digital governance, are we returning to working conditions of a bygone era?;
Does anyone even think about their students?;
High school seniors, in particular, find themselves in limbo, a situation that adds even more stress to their already strained mental state due to the national exams.
How can a teacher with combined classes carry out his or her instructional and pedagogical work, especially when we take into account the learning difficulties and/or disabilities that some students face?;
And most importantly: has anyone asked, given the loss of so many instructional hours in high school, when and how the curriculum will be completed for the subjects in the specialized tracks that are tested nationwide or for the subjects tested using a question bank?;
Or should we just assume that the students will learn the material at the tutoring centers?;
Is this a public school that provides students with equal opportunities?;
Once again, public schools are bringing up the rear in our education system!!!!
We've been watching the same play for many years now!!!!!
