Ministry makes fresh overture to teachers
Just one day after the president of the State Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OLME) rebuffed a government overture to join a cross-parliamentary debate on education reform, Deputy Education Minister Andreas Lykourentzos sent a letter to OLME’s managing board inviting teachers to two-way talks with the ministry. «Our sincere decision to conduct an open and honest dialogue guarantees that you will have an equal say in talks,» Lykourentzos said in the letter. He added that talks were more likely to be successful if proposals were made «with the aim of achieving the greatest possible consensus regarding methods to upgrade high schools and the transition of graduates to higher education.» In his letter, Lykourentzos asked OLME to appoint two representatives to attend talks with the ministry, to be represented by himself. Earlier in the week, OLME’s president Costas Maniatis rebuffed an invitation by Education Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos to join a cross-party debate on education. Maniatis dismissed the initiative as a bid «to involve educationalists in an endless and disorienting process.» The Communist Party has refused to join the debate, while the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) has said it will only do so under certain preconditions.
