A parent’s anger

A good friend wrote to me on Tuesday: “Universities have been closed for two months. My children entered two very good departments in Athens and Patra, two departments that require hard work to finish and which have huge dropout rates. They both missed the winter semester exam. In other words, they lost a semester. I don’t know if there is another country in the EU which would allow universities to be closed for two months.” And she added, “And imagine that some people voted for New Democracy so that sit-ins wouldn’t be allowed and the semesters wouldn’t be lost!”

Greek parents do everything so that their kids can study: They pay, they run around to book lessons at private tuition centers, they put unbearable pressure on their children to secure good grades in the nationwide university entrance exams. When their kids manage to get into a demanding university department, they are very proud. But they have the right to be very angry when they lose a semester of their professional life.

You might ask, is the government to blame for this or is it only the government? The government’s main fault is perhaps that it initially raised the bar too high, promising that it would rid universities of violence, sit-ins, filth and crime with some “magic wand.” Its plans remained on paper, as was made abundantly clear with the university police. Greek public universities have not really changed, with the exception of the introduction of foreign language programs.

A considerable part of the anger lies of course with some rectors and deans and to those who imposed the closure of the universities with the usual bluster. The combination of spineless university officials and obsessive troublemakers is leveling.

There is certainly the argument that the lost semester is the price to pay for progress, the necessary “ransom” for the country to move forward with the establishment of nonprofit universities. Maybe. But this also sets the bar too high for the government. Whether it was worth the price or not will be determined by whether really good private universities are established in Greece with serious, quality oversight by the state, and whether there will be significant changes in public universities, which cannot be left to their fate. The bar is high, the challenge is difficult, but it can be won.

The state of chaos and corruption in the country’s public universities remains for the moment – and we say it again – a Gordian knot left since the restoration of democracy that is waiting for someone, someday, to cut it. Nobody knows how to do it. But my friend has every right to be angry because her kids missed a semester.