Greek students, teachers protest over education shortages
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Police put the turnout at the Athens demonstration at least 5,000 people, and similar protests were held in other major Greek cities.
PHOTO: AFP
- Greek students, teachers and civil servants will protest on Oct 21 in Athens and Thessaloniki over the high cost of living and education demands.
- Student leader Katia Koubousidou said, “We are demanding public, free education,” and added, “This will not be a one-off protest.”
- Unions also want better school infrastructure and more staff, while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece would “never return” to past social unrest.
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ATHENS – Inspired by protests in France and other parts of Europe, thousands of Greek students on Oct 21 demonstrated around the country against the high cost of living, saying they face many of the same problems.
“In Greece, like in France, we are demanding public, free education,” Katia Koubousidou, head of a student union at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, told AFP.
“This will not be a one-off protest. We have a plan to continue our demonstrations.”
Police put the turnout at the Athens demonstration at least 5,000 people.
Similar protests were held in other major Greek cities.
Dozens of students set up tents in Athens’ Syntagma Square, facing Parliament, and on a pedestrian street in Thessaloniki on Oct 20.
State hospital doctors and civil servants also staged strikes and work stoppages on Oct 21.
Secondary school pupils and teachers are protesting about a lack of infrastructure, a shortage of staff and increased public spending on education.
The conservative Greek government has sought in recent days to avoid any parallel with the protests and violence in France.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Oct 19 that the country would “never return to the era of great social unrest” during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, marked by unpopular austerity measures.
French cities were hit by some of the country’s worst rioting in recent years on Oct 17, with public buildings torched, hundreds of shops looted and more than 2,000 people arrested.
According to EU data agency Eurostat, Greece in 2023 spent 3.3% of national output on education, among the lowest share in the bloc and far below the European average of 4.7%.
The authorities “do not want (people to have) quality education, so that we don’t understand what is going on”, said Maria, a 57-year-old municipal worker at the Athens demonstration.
Greek education unions and student groups have long called for additional spending on dilapidated buildings and more staff.
“School buildings are terrible, and poorly maintained,” said Yiannis Papanikolaou, a 17-year-old student from the bohemian Athens district of Exarchia.
“Falling plaster, broken windows, faulty radiators,” he said.
“I think that something might change, because of what France is doing, France will spur Greece.”
Teachers’ union OLME has said that there is a shortage of 15,000 secondary school teachers nationwide.
Earlier in October, falling roof plaster injured a 14-year-old schoolboy in a classroom in Thermi, near the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
A similar incident occurred on Oct 19 at the entrance of an Athens school, outside operating hours.
And a major school complex in Athens has been closed for almost two weeks over a gas leak scare still under investigation, affecting some 4,000 students. AFP