During this dark era of the great financial crisis, about 50,000 Greek children not only completed their studies, but they also managed to get their post graduate and doctoral titles, here or abroad.
As we wrote in the Sunday edition of To Vima, between 2009 and 2013 Greece accumulated an incredible wealth of knowledge that can be a hidden treasure for contemporary Greece.
It is not the first time that Greeks finds refuge in education during hard times.
Since the Turkish occupation and much later, during the great struggles to establish the contemporary Greek state, education has offered opportunities to everyone.
A great scientific workforce was lost to the occupation and the civil war.
After the war though, the destitute Greece turned to education and participated in the intellectual rebirth of the 1960s.
Something similar is going on right now. Our youth is not the uneducated, untrained, rude and dismissive youth that some chose to claim with ease.
On the contrary, most of our youth know many languages, are well-traveled, have a grip on technology, are knowledgeable, with experiences of the modern world and above all have a free and creative spirit. This surplus of knowledge could potentially be the basis of a new growth that everyone presumably wishes.
The problem is that in most cases, this remarkable workforce is either late to enter the job market, is underemployed, or simply unable to find suitable employment and decides to migrate.
The worst of all is that those with the highest skills and qualifications are the first to go. It is even worse that nobody recognizes the new generation’s potential, nor is anyone doing anything to take advantage of the new generation, with few exceptions.
First of all the government should have made a move, to commit resources and create the necessary conditions to take advantage of the youth’s incredible potential.
The banks too, which have many reasons to encourage new growth, could have cooperated with the universities to create an environment of investment opportunities for modern fledging businesses that are in the position to develop technological goods or inspire new services based on new technologies.
They could also support existing businesses that truly invest in similar goods and services.
In any case, the chapter on knowledge has been written, the main investment has gone through and all that remains is to activate and take advantage of it.
In other words, it is time that everyone took action. We must support the youth, even at the expense of the older generations.
The parties and political leaders must realize that without the youth – or even worse, if the youth stands against them – nothing can happen, no society can find its way or move forward.
Antonis Karakousis
