03-01-17  K. Gavroglu: new era with hiring of tenured teachers

The government is preparing to cover long-term teaching vacancies in Primary School and Secondary School Education with an examination for the hiring of thousands of tenured teachers.

An inter-ministerial conference on the three-year plan for these hirings, which will go forward between 2018-2020, will be held next week. The examinations will be held by the end of this year (2017).

In this way, the government aims to address the major understaffing and chronic lack of primary and secondary school teachers, and to upgrade education at all levels.  No tenured teachers have been hired since the crisis began in 2009, Education Minister Kostas Gavroglu underlined. In that period, 30,000 teachers retired.

Gavroglu asserted the hiring represents an early signal that Greece is on its way to transcending the crisis and securing the first timid signs of economic growth.

“Moreover, the PM will soon announce the creation of a committee of experts to study the economics of the education system and to prepare a commitment that within three years all staff shortages will be addressed, as will operational costs and infrastructure needs.