The silence after the storm in education
The political parties – and particularly the two main ones, which enjoy most of the power and are proud of this status – should take stock now after the major misadventure that has hit our education sector. The new law by Education Minister Marietta Giannakou did not start a revolution. It brought about measures that were desperately needed to upgrade our higher education system. Nevertheless, it was over this imperfect law – with its self-evident reforms – that ruling New Democracy and opposition PASOK clashed, with each side trying to wrest political gains from the major upheaval that the introduction of this law provoked. Opposition PASOK basically handed the government the advantage on a plate, allowing it to appear enterprising and reformist. Soon PASOK will realize that clashing violently with the government on all issues is not a convincing tactic and does not win votes; it merely leaves the country in a rut of inactivity. Perhaps it will also grasp an even more fundamental truth: that all parties, even those that exercise power, do not exist to divide their people but to unite them in a broad consensus on crucial national issues.
