Yesterday was the first day of the new school year, which saw the opposition and government clash over the suspension of teachers and the barrage of rolling strikes that teacher unions have announced.
Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras announced from the 1st Vocational High School of Nea Ionia that “nothing is free in life” and that “everything is claimed with a struggle”, urging parents and students to join and support the upcoming teacher strikes.
The president of teacher federation OLME Themis Kotsifakis echoed Mr. Tsipras and called for popular support for the “long struggle” which will begin on the 16th of September.
The government spokesperson Simos Kedikoglou stated that Mr. Tsipras was acting like “the president of an old-time student council”, while the Minister of Education Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos appealed the teachers to reconsider, so that “the students do not pay the financial crisis”. The Minister claimed that this was going to be the last year of hardship.
The teacher federations held a press conference yesterday and the president of DOE H. Kokkinos stated that day schools are facing serious problems since many teachers have been transferred to other schools, to cover gaps. According to Mr. Kokkinos this decision was announced two days before the schools opened and has caused serious problems.
Representatives of DOE met with government vice president Evangelos Venizelos, who noted the problems in education and explained that he would take a number of initiatives in support of teacher demands, so that school operation is not interrupted.
Mr. Kokkinos reported that there were 5,246 gaps in primary education and about 5,500 teachers are held “hostage” due to their upcoming transfers. The DOE president revealed that teacher wages have seen 40% cuts in recent years, with starting salaries being in the range of 640 and 700 euros.
