The reliability of a private vocational school in Arta, northwestern Greece, was called into question yesterday after it was revealed that it awarded diplomas with top marks to so many students that it accounted for a fifth of the perfect grades in all of Greece.

The Federation of Private School Teachers of Greece (OIELE) said that the Evropi School awarded just over 1,000 diplomas in three years. During this period, it issued 22 percent of all the top grades given by vocational schools. Students who graduate with top grades have a head start when applying for jobs in the public sector.

OIELE charged that the only qualification some of the teachers had was a diploma from the school. “The problem is not just in Arta… it has taken on nationwide proportions,” OIELE president Michalis Kourotos told Kathimerini. “Regulation of the sector is nonexistent.”