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The
Daily Gyro June 25, 2006 Greek Students Love the Big State U’s; Hate Private Schools The only people who are in favor of these reforms are probably those brainy Greek students from affluent families who can afford to spend all their time studying and probably wouldn’t have the time (or friends) to protest because that would take away from their ability to ruin the curve for everyone else. While the summer is typically associated with schools being out, the last several weeks in Athens has seen a rise in student protests over education reform. Last Thursday, students threw rocks and homemade explosives at riot police when the largely peaceful protest turned violent. Hundreds of thousands of workers have also staged strikes in sympathy to these students’ demands. At the heart of this debate are the Greek government’s attempts to modernize the education system in Greece to make it more accountable to the students and to make the students more accountable to the system. Greece for the first time would allow private universities, turning them into for-profit ventures. Thus students going on the popular “ten year” plan will be abolished, allowing students the right to fail a class up to two times and students would have to complete their degrees within two years of their expected completion. Students will need to buy their own books, financial aid will be restricted, and student self-governance will be limited as well. (As a side note, free speech on campus will be limited as well and Greek police will have jurisdiction to go onto campus, ending the policy of “University Asylum”, probably to keep students from protesting when these reforms pass and everyone is ticked off about it.) Making all this possible will be a revision to Article 16 of the Greek Constitution that guarantees the right of every citizen for free, public education. Perhaps the most striking part of these reforms is the relevance of the ultimate degrees received by these students. As the system currently stands, Greek students receive degrees that are essentially ubiquitous and therefore meaningless to employers. (Think liberal arts degree from a big state school.) In a country with staggering unemployment and low-paying jobs for the very few university graduates that make it through the Greek system (failure rates in many exams are up to 80%, making it hard to get enough credits to even get a degree), the goal of these reforms seems to be to allow those students who truly excelled in their given field to actually have a leg up in the job market. Bachelor’s degrees from foreign universities will be recognized, possibly allowing those Greeks who have come to the states to study to actually be able to return to Greece with something to show for it. (Sorry World Bank and NIH. All the fun Greeks on staff might actually find a way to go home.) The interesting part of these protests is the truly unifying nature of them in Greece from students and non-students alike. If you think about it, with unemployment as high as it is, those who have jobs shouldn’t be doing anything that encourages the next generation to come in and replace them, but they are. Poorer students oppose these reforms because it will make a degree, which is hard to get when they’re working a job to pay for their room and board and to supplement the outdated free textbooks even harder if there is a time limit on completing their degree. The only people who are in favor of these reforms are probably those brainy Greek students from affluent families who can afford to spend all their time studying and probably wouldn’t have the time (or friends) to protest because that would take away from their ability to ruin the curve for everyone else. Dorks. Other Servings of The Daily Gyro
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