Teachers’ strike against evaluation declared illegal and abusive

An Athens court ruled on Thursday that Monday’s strike by teachers’ unions against mandatory evaluation in schools was illegal and abusive.

The ruling from Athens Appeals Court prohibits further strike action and imposes a fine of €3,000 euros for each violation of the decision.

Unions have called for general assemblies of regional teacher associations to consider their next steps.

Main opposition SYRIZA and the Communist Party (KKE) criticized the court’s ruling.

According to the assessment guides sent to schools by the Institute of Educational Policy, the emphasis of the assessment is placed on educational work, and, in particular, on distance education in the midst of a pandemic. 

These evaluations seek to ascertain how e-learning was organized and operated, what the problems faced by schools were and how they were addressed. What’s more, an assessment will be made of the efforts to ensure the active participation of students. 

At the same time, teachers will be evaluated individually on a four-point scale: unsatisfactory, satisfactory, very good, excellent. 

Teachers who are judged as unsatisfactory will undergo training, leading some critics to opine that those educators that score poorly are essentially let off the hook.