Incentives for appointment to islands and mountain villages

How easy is it for a young person to choose to live in a mountainous area or on an island? The answer is not obvious, and those who see life in these areas behind their summer tourist facade know this. Teachers and doctors know that a difficult lifestyle awaits them when they are assigned to these areas. A typical example is the stress teachers experience in finding accommodation on one of the Cyclades islands after being assigned there these days. A package of measures—mainly financial—can offer relief, but the government is considering a broader set of measures: assistance not only to civil servants—teachers, doctors, security forces—but also to create a framework that will limit the exodus of locals to urban centers and support the periphery.

The government has drawn up a package of incentives, the fiscal impact of which is expected to be assessed by the General Accounting Office. The incentives for teachers and healthcare workers, who are called upon to bear the greatest burden due to the importance of their work, are aimed at providing them with financial support, improving their living and working conditions, and enhancing their professional profile. For example, for teachers, the possibility of shorter compulsory working hours, the granting of financial allowances and vouchers for housing, food, heating, and transportation, tax relief, reduction of insurance contributions, free postgraduate programs, and free access to electronic libraries. For healthcare personnel—doctors and nurses—the following are being considered, among other things: remote on-call duty, faster salary progression, tax breaks and lower insurance contributions, and bonus points for their children in the Panhellenic Examinations.

Flexible working hours, increased points system, and allowances

The government is planning a wide range of measures to support teachers who settle in «difficult» areas. For example, the plan includes financial incentives for teachers, as well as measures to help teachers do their job better and improve professionally, and the possibility of shorter working hours than the mandatory weekly requirement. The following are being considered:

• Upgrading the role of schools in local communities, so that teachers working there feel that they are working in a hub of creativity. This could be achieved by using schools in remote areas as centers for digital equipment, psychological counseling, and cultural issues.

• Utilize school and teacher evaluations to encourage the best teachers to move to the most challenging areas.

• Utilization of distance learning applications for research and remote assistance from other educators and scientists.

• Greater flexibility in covering the working hours of teachers serving in remote mountainous and island areas with regard to course assignments.

• Possibility of a slight deviation in the completion of teachers' working hours when there is no nearby school unit to complete their working hours. It should be noted that newly appointed teachers must teach 24 hours per week and professors 23 hours.

• Allow administrative work to be assigned to substitutes to complete mandatory working hours when there are fewer hours than those specified in their contract.

• Issuing a special call for applications to fill specific positions, with increased points awarded for local residency.

• Establishment of a specific financial allowance depending on the particular conditions of each region.

• Provision of a lump sum for initial installation or provision of vouchers for housing, food, heating, and transportation.

• Permanently reduced fare on public transport (bus, train, ship, plane) for the duration of the employee's service in specific areas.

• Provision of tax relief and reduction of insurance contributions.

• Provision of vouchers for the purchase of digital equipment (computers, cameras, microphones, tablets, etc.).

• Strengthening mobilization/support from local government agencies to secure housing and attract material resources from local professionals.

• Free enrollment in Hellenic Open University postgraduate programs, distance learning lifelong education programs, and free and open access to electronic libraries and databases.

• Programs to attract locals to study at teacher training colleges.

• Priority (or exceptional) participation in training programs.

• Improving opportunities to attend conferences/seminars and continuing education in general.

• Provision of ESPA programs for new teachers and the acquisition of teaching experience.

Tax breaks, remote on-call duty

The package being considered by the government to provide incentives to healthcare professionals who will be placed in mountainous and island areas includes the following:

• Utilization of telemedicine applications for the exchange of reliable information, research and assessment, continuing education, remote assistance in diagnosis and treatment of emergencies.

• Establishment of a remote on-call system for the operation of health units in island areas (by specialty).

• Utilization of floating vessels and medical personnel of the Armed Forces – Announcement of positions in pairs.

• Enabling doctors serving in island areas to take their scheduled leave and have their positions filled during their absence by doctors on short-term contracts (or private practitioners in the area) by developing an online platform to organize information and fill vacancies.

• Easier career advancement in the healthcare system.

• Option to choose not only geographical location (city) but also hospital after the end of the employment contract in the island region.

• Utilization of doctors who have resigned from the National Health System.

• Increased responsibilities for nurses in island regions.

• Increase in the monthly financial allowance.

• Faster salary progression.

• Provision of a lump sum for initial installation, housing allowance, free accommodation, low-interest housing loans, reduced or even free travel tickets.

• Provision of tax relief and reduction of insurance contributions.

• Possibility of co-service with spouse (or other first-degree relative).

• Strengthening mobilization/support from local authorities to secure housing and attract material resources from local professionals.

• Participation of children of doctors (and other health professionals) in a Panhellenic Examination system similar to that of expatriates in Cyprus, or scoring of children for the Panhellenic Examinations.

• Training doctors in emergency medicine.

• Free access to distance learning postgraduate programs and free access to electronic libraries and databases.

• Student internships.

• Provision of ESPA programs for young assistant doctors and acquisition of clinical experience.

€400 rent in Mykonos, with families «scraping by»

Yuli is from Karditsa and was hired as a substitute kindergarten teacher for the school year that just started on September 1. Today, the 30-year-old teacher will stay with a relative in Athens, and tomorrow morning she will take the ferry to the Cyclades. Where to? «They say I've probably been assigned to Mykonos.» Seventeen kindergarten teachers were hired in the Cyclades, and based on their scores, those with the lowest scores choose Mykonos, since there are no houses available. «It's a hassle to find a place to live. That's what happens when you get hired on an island like this,» adds Giouli, who will be paid around €1,000 a month (given that she also has a master's degree). A market survey of houses on the island shows that rents range from €400. As the problem of homelessness on tourist islands is well known, the municipality, like others (e.g., Santorini, Hydra), has provided temporary accommodation, but again, teachers are left in limbo.

According to the procedures, substitute teachers must be in their positions by Monday. «It's unbelievable what these people are going through. Every year, they load their cars with kitchenware, blankets, summer and winter clothes, and travel to whatever remote area they happen to be assigned to,» observes Stavros Petrakis, secretary of the Greek Teachers« Federation (DOE), asking if teachers could be given more time. »The families of substitute teachers are struggling to make ends meet,« says Mr. Petrakis, while some refuse to register tourist areas.

Most of the teaching vacancies that are filled by substitute teachers—estimated at around 35,000 this year—are in Crete and the Cyclades, while on the mainland they are in Laconia, Attica, and Euboea. Yesterday, the DOE's board of directors met with Education Minister Niki Kerameos to discuss the high cost of living on tourist islands and in remote areas. The DOE's board of directors is also expected to meet with the Minister of Finance to discuss the issue of the high cost of living in remote areas.

«Serving as a teacher in the Dodecanese prefecture is both an honor and a responsibility. It is an honor to teach children in a remote area, and a responsibility to maintain high national morale through activities and celebrations. The locals make you feel “at home” from the very first moment. However, teachers experience many difficulties when serving on these islands. The Dodecanese islands are a top tourist destination, which means that finding accommodation is particularly difficult, especially in September. Products, which are difficult to transport to the islands, are considerably more expensive than those on the mainland, causing hardship for teachers, notes 33-year-old teacher Fanis Vougas in «K.».

He emphasizes: «The state must immediately create a plan so that teachers in island regions do not feel like second-class civil servants. By working with municipalities to create infrastructure for housing teachers, giving them a substantial island allowance, reducing transportation costs, and giving increased points to school units, the state will demonstrate in practice that it respects the teachers of our country who choose to staff schools in island and remote areas.