Minister takes striking teachers to court
Education Minister Niki Kerameus is taking OLME, the union of public secondary school teachers, to court to prevent them from striking on Monday.
The union decided on a three-hour stoppage, from 11 am to 2 pm Monday, which also happens to be the day when entrance examinations to 37 designated “prototype schools” throughout the country are scheduled to take place. The stoppage concerns only the teachers involved in proctoring the exams.
These magnet schools, at the junior high (Grades 7-9) and high school (Grades 10-12) level, will be given a certain latitude to deviate from the centrally-designated curriculum and try innovative approaches to learning.
The competitive examination, if not the idea of the magnet school itself, is anathema to union leadership and the left-wing opposition, both of which demand that entrance to these schools take place by lottery instead.
In her emergency filing to a lower Athens court, Kerameus asks for the strike to be ruled illegal and abusive. The court decision is expected later Saturday.
