Lowering the bar

The announcement Wednesday of the results of national university entrance exams held several unpleasant surprises.

The biggest shock was the fact that students are being accepted into tertiary education institutions with exceptionally low grades.

Another revelation was that there are currently 456 different university and college departments with as many areas of study, many of which will not help students to gain useful employment.

The grades for education departments were even more of a shock. How can we expect students who only just scraped in by the exams to teach our children?

These are the sorts of things that only happen in a country like Greece, a country where excellence has become anathema and where common sense is seriously lacking in every facet of public life.

If this year’s exams taught us anything, it’s that leveling the playing field down to the lowest common denominator must stop.