ONTOPOLOGY

1.0 SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS STUDY IN GREECE

1. It is the first time that a Greek study addresses to the international community of school
effectiveness and improvement.
2. Educational evaluation disappeared from the Greek educational agenda in the early 1980s.
Until then, the evaluation of teachers had been the job of school inspectors whose reports - as
most people in Greece agree today - constituted the tools with which political control was
exerted over education.
3. Inspection reached its heyday during the military regime in Greece between 1967 and 1974.
In the early 1980s, teachers' reactions and the socialist government's efforts towards
democratisation resulted in the abolishment of any inspection and the introduction of the body
of school consultants.
4. School consultants only provided pedagogical guidance and support to teachers. For twenty
years now there has been nobody in Greece with the task of evaluating the quality of
education from kindergarten to university.
5. Until now, nobody has been able to write about the relative effectiveness of Greek schools.
6. Today, eight years after Kallen's (1996) remarks, little has been changed regarding the
collection of educational statistics and the evaluation of the Greek school system. A study
conducted by the Greek Pedagogical Institute regarding the evaluation of so-called
'educational work' was terminated in 1999 due to changes in the government's educational
policy.
7. Another study undertaken by the Centre for Educational Research concerning the
'investigation of the characteristics of the Greek schools' is still in its pilot phase. It is
important to stress that 75% of the funds for these studies come from the Second Support
Framework of the European Community.
8. The situation in Greece is dramatically different from that of the other European countries. No
mechanisms for monitoring the quality of education exist, no educational statistics are
published, and no inspectors visit the Greek schools.
9. Greece participated in the Third Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) as well as the
Programme for International Student Assessment (pISA 2000). Results regarding the place of
Greek students in these two studies can be found in the official OECD publications. However,
no further analyses have been made or published focusing on the Greek educational system.
10. Plans for educational evaluation were recently introduced by the previous Minister of
Education, Dr. Gerasimos Arsenis, in the eighth article of educational Law 2525 of 1997.
11. However, this article was never enforced in response to teachers' adverse reactions, lack of the
necessary infrastructure and expertise, and lack of the supporting presidential decrees.
12. The current Minister for Education who succeeded Dr. Arsenis, Mr Petros Efthimiou, has
essentially abolished the eighth article of the Law 2525 and is preparing his own proposals for
educational evaluation. Some basic ideas from Mr. Efthimiou's plans are presented in the
sixth chapter of the current thesis but up to the day when the present work was submitted, the
details of the new procedures for educational evaluation were unknown.
13. Therefore, there are now three different published proposals for educational evaluation in
Greece: (a) a proposal made by teachers in the 1980s, (b) the proposal made by the Greek
Pedagogical Institute in 1999, and (c) the eighth article of Law 2525 of 1997 that was passed
by the previous Minister.

2.0 QUALITY, EVALUATION, AND MODERNISATION IN THE GREEK

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
1. The problem of the Greek educational system becomes more intense as 1992 approaches. In
competitions among the educational systems, Greece lags behind. (Current Prime Minister of
Greece Konstandinos Simitis in the newspaper on 10 December 1989. Title: Our schools produce
micro-capitalism and statism.)

2.1 . THE GREEK EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

2.1.1. LOGISTICS AND BASIC FEATURES

1. Greek education serves a traditionally highly homogeneous society, sustained by its deep-
rooted Hellenic and Byzantine traditions, by a cohesive, state-supported religion, and by a
strong family solidarity.
2. Education in Greece operates within a context of great geographic contrasts and variety,
with corresponding differences in the distribution of population between urban and rural
areas, as well as great socio-economic differences between these two areas. School
buildings space in towns is hard to find while schools in rural areas are regarded as
functioning at high cost.
3. Education in Greece has never connected with the world of work. This is because by
serving a traditionally agricultural country, Greek economy shifted rapidly from the
primary production sector to a secondary and tertiary level.
4. Education in Greece is extremely politicised. Politicisation is logically a characteristic of
centralised educational systems because in these systems the teachers and administrators
are directly accountable to the governments. Few other countries, however, have
experienced the extent of educational discontinuities that Greece has suffered as a result
of political turmoil in the post War period.
5. The Greek school system has a rather simple and clearly delineated structure. Its
compUlsory part consists of six years of primary school (demotiko scholeio), followed by
a three-year comprehensive lower secondary school (gymnasio) After gymnasio, most
students continue their studies to the higher secondary school, the lyceum. Until 1998
there were five types of lyceia l : (a) 'general' lyceum, (b) 'technical' lyceum, (c)
'polyvalent' (comprehensive) lyceum, (d) 'classical' lyceum (focusing on the study of
classics), and (e) 'music' lyceum (offering studies - but not certificate - in music).
6. Starting from 1998, however, all types of lyceia that were described above (except for the
music ones) became eniaia i.e. 'integrative' or comprehensive.

2.1.2. THE ADMINISTRATION OF GREEK SCHOOLS

1. The Greek educational system has always been centralised and bureaucratically
organised. All decisions pertaining to curricula, textbooks, school timetables, the
appointment, salaries and promotion of teachers, the establishment, equipment and
operation of the schools, are made by the Ministry of Education and are uniformly
introduced into all the schools.
2. The administrational pyramid of the Greek educational system. The Greek Ministry of
Education is at the top. The Pedagogical Institute and the National Council for Education
act as advisory bodies to the Minister. The National Council for Education has a small
secretariat but it has hardly ever held any meetings.

2.1.3. THE FRONTISTERION: THE GUILTY SECRET OF THE GREEK

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

1. One of the most important features of Greek education is the existence of the
frontisterion: the private institutions which offer extra hours of private tutoring in specific
curriculum areas.
2.1.4. INDICATORS FOR THE QUALITY OF THE GREEK SCHOOL SYSTEM

1. Greek policy makers and educators have used everything that according to their opinion
could serve as a quality indicator.
2. The most widely used indicators for the quality of the school system in Greece are the
raw student examination grades in national examinations.