The summer holidays have finally come to an end for the country’s 1,300,000 students who return to school today as the new school year begins. Despite government assurances though, teacher federations have warned that there are about 12,000 vacant teaching positions.
The Education Ministry has pledged to hire 10,000 substitute teachers and a further 1,100 if problems persist. Minister Andreas Loverdos commented that schools should be exempt from the currently enforced regulation of one recruitment for every ten dismissals in the public sector.
Unlike previous year, the Ministry has reported that the schools have the necessary books and textbooks to distribute to students and the overwhelming majority of 127,033 teachers and professors have been appointed and are ready to begin teaching.
Despite the Ministry’s assurances though, the teacher federations OLME and DOE insist that the aforementioned teaching staff shortages will result in thousands of lost teaching hours.
