In a statement, the Ministry of Education said that, following a dialogue with representatives of the parties in parliament, amendments to the evaluation bill are already underway, which will be open for public consultation until Wednesday 14 July 2021.
Two changes announced by the ministry concern the distribution of students per class, where seems to be taking back the regulation that stipulated that the allocation would be based on qualitative characteristics, with the decision being taken by the Teachers' Association, after taking into account the special learning needs of the students, ensuring that groups are formed to facilitate the social integration and learning progress of the students. This is Article 85 of the bill under consultation, a provision which will not ultimately apply, with the Ministry announcing that the allocation will be made in alphabetical order, as has been the case until now.
Another point which seems not to be implemented is that of the possibility of private teachers to claim the posts of School Directors, PDEs, Education Directors, Education Advisers, Education Advisers and other posts (Articles 27 and 54 entitled Salary provisions and Purpose and scope respectively). According to the Ministry's announcement, only public sector teachers will eventually apply for education officer positions.
The announcement of the Ministry of National Defence
The consultation and discussions with competent bodies on the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs« draft bill on »Upgrading schools and empowering teachers" is continuing unabated.
In the context of the draft law, the dialogue with the parliamentary opposition groups continues. The leadership of the Ministry met with representatives of the KINAL and MP25, while it also held talks with representatives of the Hellenic Solution, in a very fruitful and constructive process of exchange of views. SYRIZA and KKE did not want to join the dialogue, despite the invitation extended to them by Minister Niki Kerameos, in order to take into account their proposals initially before the consultation and before the submission of the bill to the Parliament.
Following the adoption of ideas and the inclusion of suggestions from the educational community and stakeholders, amendments to the bill are already underway.
Indicatively, the positions of education officers will be filled by public sector teachers and the allocation of students to classes will be alphabetical.
N. Filis: «Take back the first provisions - take back the law»
The generalized outcry for two of the dozens of negative regulations of the new Kerameos bill, brought the first results before it was even submitted to the Parliament: the minister withdrew the absolutely anti-pedagogical provision with which she abolished the principle of alphabetical classification of students in classes and replaced it with criteria that separated students according to their learning level, their origin, etc., demolishing a pillar of democratic educational systems. It also takes back the unprecedented possibility of private teachers occupying managerial positions in public education! The question is, on what grounds did they include these blatant provisions in the bill and on what grounds did they withdraw them within days and hours? Did they miss the mark that badly when they were «staffing» it, as usual?;
It is characteristic that this bill, which subverts the democratic functioning of the school, has provoked reactions among teachers, but the ministry is promoting it, ignoring the special circumstances of the pandemic that require even more cooperation - not confrontation! - in schools. The struggle today to take back all the negative provisions of their new law and to overturn tomorrow the extensive Kerameos-Mitsotakis anti-reform remains a priority, in Parliament and in the streets.
Finally, I remind you that the ministry is unjustifiably delaying to make public the statistics of the Panhellenic exams from which the admission bases per field and department will be derived and it will be shown that the new system will cut thousands of new children from the universities.
