Educational inequalities still exist in Greece
In September 2003, the National Statistics Service (NSS) of Greece published the census results of March 18, 2001 with respect to education levels for people aged 6 and over. This data, coupled with the data from the censuses of 1971, 1981 and 1991, forms the basis for examining: 1. Changes in the education levels of the population aged 10 and over for the entire country from 1971-2001. 2. Education levels of the population aged 6 and above in the 13 regions of the country for 2001. Education levels examined in the first part are those covered by the four censuses, and are divided into the following: – University graduates, along with MAs and PhDs. – Senior high school leavers, technical high school leavers, graduates from vocational training schools (IEK), undergraduates still studying at universities, technical colleges and IEK (aged mostly 19-24). – Junior high school leavers plus those (aged mostly 15-19) who have not yet left senior high. – Those who have finished primary school plus those still in junior high (chiefly aged 12-15). – Those who have not finished primary school and those (aged mostly 10-12) still in primary school. – Those considered illiterate: These are chiefly elderly people who stated that they cannot read and write. The second part is confined to the 2001 census, which has data on more educational levels, including four sub-groups of tertiary education graduates: those who have a PhD, a Master’s, a university degree and a technical college degree, and two primary school sub-groups: those aged 6 and above still in primary school and those who (chiefly elderly people) dropped out of primary school. (1) Manolis G. Drettakis is former deputy speaker of Parliament, a former minister and professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business.
