Education promoting faineance
A bolishing the minimum grade requirement – which had been set at 10 points out of a possible 20 – for the country’s national university entry exams is proving to have been a step in the absolutely wrong direction. What this change in the examination system has effectively resulted in is the continued operation of university schools and departments that have little reason to exist, which, by extension, has delayed even further the implementation of much-needed changes to the university system, such as the merger of certain departments and the abolition of entire defunct programs that cost the state money. But these structural problems aside, the decision also instills the wrong ethos in the country’s high school students: that they can get a college place even with minimum effort. Greece needs fewer universities and technical colleges as well as ones that will make better use of the country’s meager funds for tertiary education. What it certainly does not need is a further lowering of standards and the prevalence of a lazy attitude toward learning.
