While the Ministry of Education is entangled in a nebulous war of attrition with the administrative employees in higher education, a number of high schools have complained about critical teacher shortages which need to be addressed. According to some reports, the situation is so dire that replacement teachers are being transferred from secondary schools in order to teach final year students in preparation for the Panhellenic exams.
Teachers, parents and students from Athens schools gathered outside the Regional Directorate of Education on Thursday to protest the unacceptable transfer of teachers to cover for the shortages. Press reports from all over Greece however indicate that this is a generalized problem, rather than being limited to the capital.
The biggest problems have been documented in vocational schools, while in general high schools the greatest teacher shortages are for biologists. According to the Athens local teacher union, about 50 teaching hours in Biology have to be made up for already. The nationwide federation of secondary school teachers (OLME) has attributed the problem to the drastic budget cuts and has warned that the problem will get worse as 1,676 schools are to merger or shut down next year.
