Why are students in greece so against changes in the Education system?

Answer 1

Because they want to be students for ever, on our costs, destroy the public buildings and their contents hidding behind the "asylum" - one has to remember that they distroyed even the collection of paintings of "Polytechnio", get their diplomas without examinations, and spend their time in political quarrels, having coffee and a variety of activities which are hardly appropriate to students.... As for their teachers, they just want to maintain the existing system of never being controlled, of building their carreer not on knowledge and research but on plots and exchanges, and that's the rason why they give backing to the students

Answer 2

To my opinion it is not really the changes in the Educational system that students in greece disagree. It is a political debate between the 2 larger political parties that is hided in their fight.

Since student unions are strongly influenced by these two political parties they insist that they do not accept as a whole the changes of the Education system.

Let's think : there is nothing positive in the changes? For example why there should not exist a time limit for studies?

In the universities all over the world there is a time limit for the study period. In Greece there was not. A student had an unlimited period to conclude the studies which I consider unfair for those students who wish to enter the university and take a diploma. In a maximum of 6 years (not 4) a student should either finish his/her studies or interrupt them and change sector.

Why there should not exist a minimum level of knowledge (10/20) for passing the exams ? If a person is unable to fulfil the minimum requirment it is better to turn to another type of occupation.

For what concerns the payment for the studies OK I agree that this is unfair, the education should be offered for free.

Anyway I strongly believe that if there is an honest dialogue with logical explanations between the students unions and the government WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF POLITICAL PARTIES, they might achieve some agreement.

In the contrary case i think that students will continue to disagree just for the disagreement withour comments which could promote their own interests..........

Answer 3

- Who says they are? You can only know if you are a student. It is ONE thing the situation with Universities and how things work there and ANOTHER thing what is portrayed by the massive media.
- The majority of the students don't agree completely with neither of the group of students who have an opinion on the subject (and who belong to the respective "youths" of the greek political parties, EITHER consciously supporting them OR being influenced by the "ideals" of each "youth" and wanting to infer the changes they believe to be the best).
In the end, how things word with politically active people here is both for LAUGHS and TEARS (and for pulling out your hair, I would add, because of how prejudiced and non-dialoguing people can be, even if they claim quite the contrary).
At this point I will agree with elmamelenia.
- If you ever look at the results of the elections of the representatives of the University Students in each University, you'll have to first judge by the percentage of participation and then the tendencies (almost steady over the years) of vote distribution among candidates.
- "The Stainless Steel Rat" has a point, and also "cpinatsi". The undeniable truth is that laws and personal iniciatives are a little... stagnant. I mean that for the better or the worse noone dares to make changes, being afraid of the reactions of the opposing groups (e.g. professors don't want to mess up with protesting students) or the change of their state of convenience. Especially about the University case the past few months, there is also the matter of the "asylum", which brings back memories from the dictatorship during 1967 - 1973 (there is still lots of misunderstanding and disagreement on this part of Greek national history and the lessons we should have learned from it as a people). The thing about the recent troubles is that the Greek Government provoked the "leftist" students and parties announcing, last summer, vague changes and stating that they are going to apply them soon no matter what (absence of democratic dialog(ue) etc). They had the ..."courage" to let the academy buildings be occupied by the protesting for whole months before they issued the details of the so-called Law-Frame for the Superior Education in the beginning of this year. As for the essence of the new scheme "cpinatsi" is definitely right. I would comment on each suggestion and what is supported by each side, but it would take pages and pages.
- If some little (in reality, if you ask me) percentage of students do not complete their studies in time, it is the fault of their parents who keep supporting even their laziness. The greek state has always explicitly stated the conditions under which financial or "of another type" support for students can be continued (2 or 3 years maximum after the normal time of studies), so practically it is not the fault of the law. It is the right of one individual person to decide how "irresponsible" one can be, since one doesn't do harm anyone else except one's self (he/she has already gained the right to study. How this is going to be done is a matter of his/her opinion).
- THERE IS a miminum level of knowledge for passing the exams IN UNIVERSITIES. About the UNIVERSITY ENTRY EXAMS, this is NOT one of the things that MOST concern the opposers (but still is a controversial issue, with many factors to take account of. If you ask me, I would say "ban all entry exams", but unfortunately education is far more than the "ideal of knowledge growing"; it has a financial and political role as well).
- Education SHOULD be considered as an ideal, and offered for free to anybody. Even if it is reasonable paying some amount as a student, this automatically opens the way for greater commercialization of this "public good"...

Sorry, I recognize my response was long and not as clear as it should be, but I guess I'm too immersed in the system to be able to give you some better clues...

Answer 4

i think that in Greece they are against almost everything the government is trying to change, and that's why it gets so difficult, and that's maybe why the government is afraid of its own citizens.
no thumbs down, I'm just expressing an opinion!

Answer 5

Who says they are. Students as usual are split over the issue. And so is the government. Actually the ones that are dead set against it is the academics who see the reform as a threat to their tenures and positions.

Answer 6

Because usually in Greece every change is for the worse, and not for the best, even if theoretically it may be in the right direction.

Answer 7

Ones used to free, you cannot get used to paying. I guess that's it. (Even though they actually pay for tutoring)