The schools opened on Monday with significant new changes and innovations, according to the education ministry. This year, the students returned to their desks in a school with many different innovations, such as teaching English in kindergarten, while at the same time there will be skills workshops in kindergartens, elementary and high schools.
The full announcement of the Ministry of Education for schools:
- Universal application of two-year pre-school education:
This year, for the first time, the two-year pre-school education is universally applied in all the Municipalities of the country. Every 4-year-old now attends preschool.
- English in Kindergarten: Generalization in all kindergartens in the country
-After the pilot application of English in 58 kindergartens, in the school year 2020-2021, this year the English language is introduced in the compulsory program of all Kindergartens, through creative experiences of an experiential nature.
-We upgrade public education from the grassroots, giving every child the opportunity to expand their language perception from a very young age.
- Skills Workshops: Universal application in kindergartens, elementary and high schools of the country
-New thematic and new ways of teaching are introduced in the compulsory timetable, with the central goal of cultivating mild skills, life skills and technology skills. The topics of the Skills Workshops include, for example, climate change, disaster prevention and prevention, volunteering, road safety, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), sex education, entrepreneurship, school work orientation, and will be taught in the logic of experiential learning and collaboration (eg students are asked to co-organize a recycling program).
-After the pilot implementation of the Skills Workshops in 218 schools in 2020-2021, their universal implementation began.
- Doubling the network of Model Schools and Experimental Schools:
-As of this year, there are 112 Model and Experimental Schools in the country, out of 60 that operated in the school year 2019-2020. Now, PPCs operate in every Region of the country.
-For the Government, the expansion and strengthening of these innovative public schools, which aim at cultivating excellence and creativity and in which every student, regardless of financial status, can attend, is a tangible example of a practical application of the principle of equal opportunities.
-The applications of students for the 4,039 positions of 112 PPS exceeded 13,000, demonstrating the wide acceptance of the institution in Greek society.
- Operation of Standard Vocational High Schools for the first time:
-The first 6 Standard Vocational High Schools of the country were founded and operate this year in Argos, Epanomi, Perama, Xanthi, Igoumenitsa and Trikala.
-Building the success and wide acceptance of the system of standard schools, the EPAL Standards. will act as pilots for the introduction and dissemination of the new vocational education system (Law 4763/2020), which emphasizes the real needs of the economy for the preparation of curricula and the definition of specialties.
- New curricula in General Education
-From this school year, 123 new Curricula will be implemented, first in a pilot application in all the Standards and the Experimental Schools of the country.
- Greater autonomy of the school unit and teachers:
-The new system that was voted in the summer is implemented from this year and provides for example greater freedom in the organization of teaching, in the evaluation of students by teachers, multiple books, strengthening the role of Director, collaborations with third parties without the approval of the Ministry – reduction of bureaucracy.
- 11,700 permanent appointments in general education:
-Our schools open with 11,700 new permanent teachers, the first appointments in general education after 12 years.
– This is a very significant number of appointments, more than double the one of 5,250 for which the Government had committed.
-The newly appointed ones cover the basic needs of the schools in human resources, which until today were covered by deputies, contributing in a key way to the formation of the most autonomous, upgraded, new public school.
- Teacher training, such as for:
-The new Curricula
-The Skills Workshops
-English in kindergarten
-Training of newly appointed and substitute teachers.
- Evaluation of schools and teachers – Improving the quality of education:
-Implementation of the evaluation of schools and teachers, based on the principle that there can be no improvement and upgrading of public education without evaluation.
-Implementation of the Themes Bank in the A ‘and B’ Lyceum. Through the Theme Bank, the quality is ensured and the comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of the educational system is facilitated.
- Digital Transformation:
-472,833 pupils and students have already purchased technological equipment (tablet, laptop, desktop) through the voucher program “Digital Care”
-From 4,000 laptops / tablets in schools in 2019, the supply of 90,000 was launched.
-The internet upgrade has been completed in 7,000 schools and is extended to all schools in the territory through the SYZEFXIS II program
-Implementation of electronic registrations (e-eggrafes) gradually at all levels
-Publishing digital excerpts of diplomas (e-apolytiria) in high schools and lyceums
-e-placements of substitute teachers: The recruitment of deputies for 2021-2022 was implemented through an innovative digital system, with the aim of simplifying, speeding up and improving the process. The system allows, among other things, the digital service, the conclusion of a digital contract and the algorithmic placement of deputies in the school units.
The article Ministry of Education: All the changes that will be implemented this year in schools published in NewsIT .