Education devolution
A bill on university reform currently being drawn up by Education Minister Costas Gavroglou represents the epitome of the way in which both he and the government treat higher education.
Their mentality concerning how schools, technological colleges and universities should to be run is based on an antiquated model rife with ideological fixations regarding the need for state/party control over every aspect of the education system, steeped in the spirit of provincialism.
This is the worst approach the leftist-led government could possibly take right now, not just because of the bad experiences and habits that were allowed to build up and harangue the academic community over the many years that such a model was applied, but also because demands today are very different to those of the past.
In the meantime, it is quite obvious that this particular bill is intended at placating the government’s more extreme left-wing supporters by rendering universities hostage to student politics and youth parties, and reintroducing protection from police intervention – a measure that has no other purpose today than to allow all sorts of criminal activities to take place on campuses.
