Parliament: Digital schools bill passes in committee

The Education Committee passed the bill by a majority vote. parliamentthis bill of Ministry of Education“Digital Education Portal and Digital Tutorialsvocational guidance in secondary education, and measures to support education systems in remote areas”.

The ruling majority, as well as the independent MP Charalambos Katsivardas, approved the bill in principle, while SYRIZA, PASOK-KINAL, EL.LY, Pleussi Eleftherias and Spartiates reserved their votes in plenary session, and the Communist Party of Greece, along with the New Left and NIKI, announced their vote against it.

This follows suggestions, comments and objections from extra-parliamentary competent bodies, which have been invited to submit their opinions to the competent committee, as well as assurances from Deputy Minister of Education Ioannas Lytrivi that “their improvements and very useful opinions will be taken into account”. At the same time, Mrs. Lytrivi dismissed objections and concerns about the abolition of face-to-face education, stressing that “the superiority of face-to-face education over distance education is clearly indisputable”.

“I don’t think anyone should think about it. But the experience of the epidemic tells us that without technological tools and digital facilities, children will be excluded from the learning process for about two years, and the consequences are immeasurable,” he pointed out.

Ms Lytrivi highlighted provisions to “enhance digital transformation” By providing free digital tutorials and professional positioning”, emphasizing that “all platforms will be fully accessible to people with disabilities”.

“Based on international data on youth unemployment and skills mismatch, we all agree that support is needed. This digital platform for career guidance in schools is the medium and yes, it will be free,” he said. “European funding of €15 million has been secured over four years,” he added.

In response to the statement of the President of OIELE that all the main problems faced by private educators remain unsolved, the Deputy Minister of Education retorted that “it is clear that none of the problems of private education have been solved”. As he said, “this is a fundraising bill that touches on urgent issues at all levels of education”, and he also announced that “in the planning of the Ministry of Education, in the autumn there will be a bill for elementary and secondary education, where all requests will be evaluated and, in cooperation with all the competent bodies, we will proceed to the relevant legislation”.

Finally, the Deputy Minister of Education denied a report in the Kathimerini newspaper, which stated that “the placement of secondary school teachers in primary school teaching positions is open, first of all in private schools.”

“If we intended to do anything, it would be reflected in this draft law, so if you don’t see anything like that, if we haven’t said anything like that, that’s not our intention,” he said. “Rather, our intention is to work with the competent authorities to regulate the problem of unregulated learning centers,” the deputy minister added.

Opinions of various institutions

For its part, OLME president Theodoros Tsouchlos said that “digital tutorials are useful”, while saying he disagreed with “the possible abolition of on-site education and its replacement with distance learning, which should be limited to cases of necessity”.

He also expressed concern about the “ministerial decision to expand the possibilities of digital education through distance courses”, while noting that “the entire process of professional guidance and handling of the digital basis of violence in schools should remain in state hands, and the involvement of public expert counselors, psychologists and social workers should be further strengthened, rather than leaving the implementation of the programs to private individuals”.

He also believes that it is positive to open autonomous classes in border areas and arrange three teachers.

The president of the Greek Teachers’ Union, Spyros Marinis, opposed the bill, accusing the ministry of “not taking into account any proposals of its 80,000 members, paving the way for the commercialization of education and discrediting teachers”.

“Nothing has been done to support teachers, nor to protect non-designated and substitute teachers, nor to safeguard infrastructure. Our disagreements on selection criteria are on record. The bill started out with the hope of upgrading education, but ended up in the same deadlock, on the path of privatization. Digital classrooms are promoted as a substitute for in-person education. The Ministry considers recruitment as a cost, ignores important issues, allows non-transparent procedures to continue, and has the logic of privatizing education. We demand that schools be fully staffed. The online platform against school violence ignores the issue of generation. This is another step in the privatization of education. Article 18 is a prime example of cost-benefit logic. Mr. Marinis said that the promotion of distance education is carried out according to the logic of cuts, while detachments and transfers are carried out without any scientific basis.

The president of POSEEPEA, Ioannis Fasoulakis, spoke about the “cost-effectiveness logic of the bill”, stressing the “need to staff schools at the beginning of the academic year, abolish the system of substitute teachers and permanent staff, ensure public institutions transport students and lifelong education, and have a transparent system that fully ensures that students with special needs have unhindered access to education”.

Yiannis Lymvaios, secretary of the ESAmeA Organisation, said the new legislative move for digital schools is very positive, but as he said, “it must also fully ensure universal accessibility for people with disabilities in education and transport” ».

“We raised the issue of access to physical and e-education for people with disabilities. What was most important to us was that it covered not only students with disabilities but also teachers and parents with disabilities.

There are serious flaws in its accessibility, and the conclusions that have been drafted have not been implemented.”

PADA Graduate Engineers Association representative Stavros Doulkeridis said he was positive about the bill, noting that one of their ongoing demands was being met.

“It is now ensured that all graduates of the PADA Engineering Faculty Department who have completed their five-year undergraduate study program will be included in the allocation of the AEI Polytechnic Faculty Department. This amendment will be a guarantee of the new ESEAA and the end of our efforts to be fair in fulfilling the professional rights of thousands of PADA graduating engineers”, he stressed.

Ioannis Seimenis, president of the POSDEP, believes that “the bill seeks to address minor issues, while serious issues such as academic scholarships are left unregulated.” He asked higher education institutions to play a major role in the process and to make decisions with the consent of the Senate.

Spyros Doukakis, president of the Education Policy Institute, spoke of “an excellent initiative that will have many positive impacts on the education community” and described the digital portal as “a high-quality, substantive support for students and teachers”.

In the same positive spirit, Georgia Reboutsika, Managing Director of the National Organisation for Qualifications and Vocational Guidance, noted that “the National Centre is being strengthened through digital platforms and the institution is only actively committed to career guidance”.

Georgios Melissarios, a representative of the Greek Union of Private Education Officials, said the bill did not take private education into account and that its provisions favoured owners rather than employees, while a third of the sector had been laid off.

“There is a complicity with private schools, which allows them to operate without restriction. The creation of digital platforms is a positive direction, as long as there are regulations, labor relations are protected, incentives are given, and they remain under state control – the same must be true for school violence platforms,” he noted..

Nikos Skikos, president of the Panhellenic Union of Professors of Informatics, stressed that “there have been concrete advances in distance education for students of the school, which is now available, and a greater step forward in digital tutorials”.

“We should weigh the pros and cons. We think these articles lean towards the positive side in terms of digital transformation of education,” he added.

Thomas Gouvalis, vice president of the Panhellenic Association of Directors of Public Vocational Training Institutions, also expressed support for the bill. As he said, “The contribution of the register will prove to be an important tool in practice by supporting interoperability between other information systems operated by (SAEK) – as it has contributed to important solutions and savings in recent years”.

“Through the registration platform, contracts can be signed with trainers, courses can be allocated, and each trainer can outline how the allocation is done, and overall the entire registration operation can be understood, so that it can be operated green,” he added.

Iliadis Christos, Vice-President of the Standing Committee on Combating Violence, described the provisions for identifying and eliminating violence in sports as “effective as a whole” and stressed that Articles 84, 87 and 88 are very important not only because it concerns the identification of targets and the resolution of problems, but also as a result of the expertise acquired by the Committee from practice within the framework of Law 5085/2024.