Karamanlis suggests students being led, refuses to ban private colleges

[Ellinas]

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday called for an end to a wave of student sit-ins that have paralyzed hundreds of secondary schools across the country, saying the government was open to debate.

“We want students to stand up for their rights but sit-ins constitute a type of lockout against the right to education,” Karamanlis told Parliament. He added that the government rejected “the logic of those who sacrifice the rights of others for their own ends,” hinting that the protests had been influenced by groups affiliated to the political opposition. Responding to a question by Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alekos Alavanos about private colleges, Karamanlis refused to prohibit their operation but said the government would impose stricter legislation to monitor the quality of the education they offer high-school leavers. The new laws would bring the colleges – most of which are franchises of foreign universities – within the Education Ministry’s control, he added.

The premier dismissed Alavanos’s stance as “a denial of reality” and stressed that Greece was obliged to bring its legislation in the education sector in line with European standards.

Asked to put an end to the sit-ins, a prosecutor told the Education Ministry that he could only intervene to investigate alleged crimes.

The students, who have shut down some 350 schools (250 of which are in Attica), are calling for more spending on education and the safeguarding of free state education.

While speaking in Parliament yesterday, Karamanlis also commented on other key issues, including the stand-off between Turkish military forces and Kurdish rebels. The PM called on Ankara to exercise “self-restraint” and avoid entering northern Iraq to crack down on independence-seeking Kurds. “Violence does not, cannot solve problems... efforts must be made to find a diplomatic solution,” Karamanlis said in response to a question tabled in Parliament by far-right LAOS party leader Giorgos Karatzaferis. The PM’s comments came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was a “common enemy” of the USΑ and Turkey.

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[gorgona]

What is your opinion on this issue, Ellinas? You're a university student, right?

[Ellinas]

Of course I am not supporting the prohibition of their operation like the "lefties" do, something like this would be anti-democratic. But the problem is that the government wants to make the certificates of the private colleges (most of them are foreign) equal with the certificates of Greek Universities and Technological Educational Institutes. I am completely against this. To say things simply, someone who paid to take the certificate can't have a certificate of the same value with someone that studied to take it.

[gorgona]

Maybe I don't understand the issue, but just because they are private colleges doesn't mean you're buying the degree. We have both private and public institutions that offer excellent educations. I think a little competition is a good thing. It raises the bar. One concern I can think of, however, is that the better professors could leave the public colleges for the private ones for better pay.

[Ellinas]

This is the main argument of the government. They claim that a possible upgrade of the private colleges or even an establishment of private Universities, would higher the competition and would also develop the public Universities.

But we don't see how something like this is going to happen. The government is not showing any attitude to improve public Universities. If they do what they want to, the most possible thing is that the competition will be raised, but public Universities will be left completely out of the competition. The competition will be between private Colleges/Universities. The prestige of the public Universities will decrease more and they will actually be declassed.

The students coming from wealthy families will be studying in the private ones and will be enjoying superior education and certificates, while the rest of the students, the majority, will be in the degrading public Universities.

The current problems of Greek supreme Education are numerous and important. We want essential actions from the government for solving them, not shady actions the ones they want to do regarding private colleges which are actions that are promoted to satisfy a part of the Greek elite and businessmen, not actions that purpose on the improvement of Education.
In my personal opinion they must not even talk about private Universities while the problems in the public ones are so many. And the problems aren't only Educational. You know that the historical building of the supreme Technical Educational Foundation of Greece is turned into a hideout of anarchists and drug dealers who take advantage of the police absense. With such situations right now, I believe we must not be talking about private Universities.