EDUCATIONAL POLICY ON HELLENIC PRIMARY

EDUCATION AFTER THE 1974 POLITICAL CHANGE TO

DEMOCRACY

By

DIMITRIOS GOTZOS

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of M.A in

Education

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY

SEPTEMBER 1996

1

This work is original and has not been submitted previously in support of any

degree,qualifiaction or course

2

ABSTRACT

The theoretical framework of this study is connected with the explanation and interpretation of the

educational policy making process. This interpretation is done through an approach at two levels. At

the first level of the approach, contemporary theories of educational policy are critically discussed. The

second complementary level of our approach focuses on the intervening role of various social interests

in the educational policy making process. There follows an identification of the social, political and

historical context of the study, the methodology, the aims of the study and the research questions.

The second part of the study includes a detailed evaluation of these policies in relation to the

opportunity to learn, content and performance standards followed by a general presentation of the

reforms and policies on Hellenic primary education in the period under examination. In the

conclusions we attempt an overall view of the implemented policies as well as an explanation of the

policy making and implementation processes in the context of our study. As a whole, this study aspires

to contribute to the understanding of the educational policy making processes and to propose a way of

critical review of educational policy in Greece focusing on the area of primary education.

3

CONTENTS

Abbreviations

DOE Primary school teacher Federation of Greece.

ESYE National Statistical Service of Greece

EU European Union

KEME Centre for Educational Studies and In-service training

KKE Communist Party of Greece

MNERA Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs

ND New Democracy

PASOK Panhellenic Socialsist Movement

PEK Regional In-service training Centres

Tables

1.Level of education of primary school teachers. page 29

2.Allocation of school population of primary education in each grade.

School years 1975/76-1980/81. 34

3. Illiterates and semi illiterates in counts and percentages in districts. 35

4. State primary schools in urban, semi urban and rural areas. 38

5.(a)Share of the total expenditure on primary education in relation to the total educational

expenditure.(b) Share of educational expenditure on the state budget. 41

4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page V

INTRODUCTION VI

PART I

EDUCATIONAL POLICY MAKING 1

1.Contemporary theoretical approaches to educational policy 1

Liberal approaches 1

Marxist approaches 3

Welfare state approaches 5

Pluralist approaches 6

2. An interpretation of educational policy 9

3.Subject of study method and research questions 15

PART II

STANDARDS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN GREECE AND THE EDUCATIONAL

POLICY SINCE 1974 20

1. The opportunity to learn standards. -Equality of educational opportunities 20

2. The content standards 25

Initial and in-service training of primary school teachers 27

Educational research 31

3. The performance standards 33

Compulsory education and student dropout 33

Literacy 35

The primary schools 37

Educational expenditure 40

4. Reforms and policies on primary education 43

CONCLUSIONS 53

NOTES 56

APPENDIX 57

REFERENCES 59

5

Acknowledgements

This dissertation owes much to the assistance of Professor Oliver Futlon under whose supervision all

of the work was done. I very much appreciate his critical evaluation of my drafts, his useful advice and

his encouragement. I am also grateful to the staff of Lancaster University Library as well as to the staff

of the Library of the Faculty of Education and the Educational Library of the Faculty of Philosophy of

the National and Capodistrian University of Athens for their help in my research.

6

INTRODUCTION

In this study it is attempted to analyse and interpret the educational policies that were implemented

in Greece after the 1974 political change to democracy concentrating on the years from 1974 till 1989.

The focusing point is the area of primary education, as this is the area of my personal interest. The

interest of this study is in the interpretation of the policy making and implementation processes. At the

same time, a critical analysis of the implemented policies is attempted in relation to the educational

standards. Our interpreting framework is the outcome of an abstracted understanding of the

relationship between education, state and society that is attempted through the critical and dialectic

presentation of contemporary theoretical approaches to educational policy combined with an

examination of the interest intervention processes.

Methodologically, this study reviews the implemented policies in relation to the concept of

educational standards and in particular of the opportunity to learn, content and performance standards

of education. Educational standards are discussed in relation to the way that they are understood by

theory, by educational research, by the state policies and by the interest groups involved in educational

policy focusing on the role of the political parties and the Primary school teacher Federation of

Greece(DOE).

In the first chapter of the first part some of the most important approaches to educational policy,

such as the liberal, marxist, pluralist and the welfare state approaches, will be presented, as these were

found as the most important ones, but this does not mean that there are no other theoretical

approaches. However, the extent of this study does not allow a more detailed presentation of

theoretical approaches. It will be attempted to identify the points of consent as well as the points of

contention among these approaches.

Apart from the underpinning political ideologies there are also other factors which determine the

educational policy making of the state that will be searched in the second chapter of the first part.

These factors have mainly to do with the various economic and political interests that intervene in the

policy making and affect its evaluation of educational standards as well as the decisions that are taken

for the monitoring of these standards. It is hoped that these two chapters will give a thorough account

of the way in which the educational policy is developed.

7

The third chapter of the first part will define the specific historical, political and social context of my

research. It will identify the particular issues of Hellenic primary education that will be analysed as

well as the way that this analysis will be structured. This chapter aspires to link the preceding

discussion about educational policy development with the specific problems and policies on Hellenic

primary education in the years 1974-89 that will be analysed in the second part of the study.

In the first chapter of the second part the state educational policies as well as the attitudes of the

political parties and educational interest groups will be examined in relation to the so called

educational standards. Husen's and Tuijnman's(1994) classification of educational standards was

adopted for this examination. Thus, educational standards are classified as follows:

-The performance standards: educational policies on issues that are indicative of the performance of an

education system will be discussed. In particular, we will focus on policies on compulsory schooling,

illiteracy, material and technical resources and financing of primary education. The uniformity of the

standards, i.e whether the educational policies resulted in the establishment of the same educational

standards nation-wide, i.e in urban as well as in rural areas will be also discussed.

-The content standards: in this section the educational policies will be discussed in relation to the

primary curriculum, the textbooks as well as in relation to issues that indirectly affect the quality of the

content of the education provided by primary schools, such as educational research as well as primary

school teacher education.

-The opportunity to learn standards: The implemented educational policies will be analysed in relation

to the equality of opportunities issue. In particular, it will be discussed whether these policies

attempted to counterbalance the existing social inequalities as well as whether they supported the

public character of primary education.

The major reforms and policies on primary education that took place during the period covered by

this study will be presented in the final chapter of the study and they will be examined in respect to the

previously discussed forms of educational standards.

Finally, at the conclusions, the effectiveness of the implemented educational policies regarding the

issues discussed in the second part of the study will be assessed with reference to the processes of the

formulation of these policies.

8

PART I

EDUCATIONAL POLICY MAKING

1.Contemporary theoretical approaches to educational policy

Liberal approaches

Liberal theoretical approaches to educational policy prioritise the issue of individual freedom, which

they see as the most important condition that should be fulfilled by every educational policy. A matter

which is criticized by liberal educational policy is that of equality of opportunity for education.

Johnson(1990) refers to Warnock(1975) who argues that the concept of equality in its pure form

cannot be acceptable because this implies a uniformity between individuals. In particular,

Warnock(ibid) suggests that the idea that 'everyone has an equal right to education' leads to the

suggestion that 'everyone has a right to equal education' something that implies that 'everyone has the

right to the same education'[cited by Johnson(1990,p.6)]. Johnson(ibid) argues that such a suggestion

does not take account of the fact that people enter education with differing personal resources,

something that may affect the outcome of their education. Warnock(1975) discriminates between 'the

right to a certain amount of ['needed'] education and the chance or opportunity to get more ['desired']

education'[cited by Johnson(1990,p.6)].

Johnson (ibid) also refers to Friedman's(1962) neighbourhood effects argument, according to which

a certain governmental interference in education is legitimized. It is often claimed that an educated

individual with his or her actions contributes towards the well being of the whole society. Friedman's

version of liberalism partly supports this argument. In brief, he argues that the fact that education has

certain positive effects does not necessarily mean that the state should provide education. According to

Friedman the state could fund education instead of providing it.

Liberal arguments focus in particular on parental choice. Liberals suggest a policy for parental

choice of a child's education, because as Johnson argues, although parents are not educationalists, they

are educators, 'perhaps the most effective educators that their children have'(Johnson,1990,p.145).

Johnson(ibid) argues that a policy for parental choice would have some beneficial long-term effects.

Schools would acquire clearer aims in order to persuade and attract parents as 'clients'. Professionals

9

would show greater respect to 'clients', i.e to parents, who in turn would show more interest in

education generally and greater commitment to schools their children attend.

However, a withdrawal of the state from the determination of educational aims and their regulation

by the laws of the market would probably cause internal inequalities among the educational institutions

as well as severe social discriminations(e.g. racially or religiously discriminated segregated schools).

Chitty cites the case of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire where a group of parents

'campained for eleven months to send their 7 and 8-year old children to local junior schools where the majority of the children were white instead of to the school which they had been allocated, where 85 per cent of the pupils were of Asian origin. The ensuing court case ended in July 1988 when the Kirklees Education Authority acceded to the parents' demands'.(Chitty,1989,p.223).

This case is subject to various interpretations. It could be suggested though that it should be attempted

to achieve a voluntary consensus between the various social groups and not one derived from a

bureaucratic or institutional coersion. It is claimed that a liberal educational policy could fulfil the

above aim.

Friedman (1962) makes a distinction between education and schooling system. The idea of freedom

of choice of education by parents is grounded on the argument of parental rights as regards the

education of their children. He argues for a privatisation of education and he goes as far as to suggest a

voucher scheme according to which grants should be directly allocated to families who send their

children to privately provided schools.

The New Right policies of the Conservative Party in the U.K. took a favourable stand on parental

choice of a child's education, as it appears in the 1979 Conservative Manifesto, where it is stated that

'extending parents' rights and responsibilities, including their right of choice, will also help raise

standards by giving them greater influence over education' [cited by Chitty(1989,p.195)].

In short, it could be suggested that the liberal approaches to educational policy consider education as

an individual right because it contributes to the individual well-being and to the better placing of the

individual in the labour market. At the same time though, they see the education of an individual to

have certain 'neighbourhood effects', in that it contributes to the well-being of the other individuals as

well. Therefore, they legitimize a degree of state intervention in education in order to secure a certain

level of education and common values in society. However, it is argued that this does not mean that

10

education should be provided by the state and resourced by public money. On the contrary, they

suggest that it should be based on the freedom of individual choice and in particular, as regards general

education, on parental choice.

Marxist approaches

Marxist theoretical approaches put emphasis on the role of education in the modern capitalist state,

on education as a state apparatus and on the relationship between educational institutions and the

society as well as education and social reproduction. They are critical of the contemporary education

systems. In particular, they criticise the liberal educational policies that were previously analysed.

Dale's(1989) work contains a detailed critical presentation of marxist approaches. Although Dale

builds his arguments upon marxism, he criticises traditional marxism and its reductive tendencies. In

particular, as regards the state he argues that 'the State is not a monolith; there are differences within

and between its various apparatuses'(Dale,ibid,p.29). He also mentions that the state should not be

identified with the government or seen as its executive committee. He perceives the government as

'a set of publicly financed institutions, neither separately nor collectively necessarily in harmony, confronted by certain basic problems deriving from its relationship with capitalism, with one branch, the government, having responsibility for ensuring the continuing prominence of those problems on its agenda'.(Dale,ibid,p.57).

Furthermore, he argues that

"the economic and political reproduction that goes on in school goes on in a particular political context[...]. Different kinds of resistance, with both different targets and different forms, are called forth from different groups. The state apparatus is by no means monolithic.[...] The forms of control implemented through educational institutions will not themselves be entirely consistent or free of contradictions. Thus, not only do the basic forms of control-bureaucracy and technocratic management-in their 'pure' forms themselves call forth particular kinds of resistance, but so do the various common combinations of them"(Dale,ibid,p.43).

Dale's analytical approach to marxism attempts to move from a general analysis of the relationship

between education and the state to the interpretation of the precise way in which educational policy is

formed as well as the reasons that lead to such a formation. He is interested in the analysis of the so

called core problems of the educational system. He identifies these problems through an analysis of the

relationship between education and the state. At the same time, he considers necessary to analyse the

11

extent of state intervention in educational institutions as well as the contradictions of the state policies

in contemporary societies.

As regards the attitude of the marxist political tradition, which Dale approached analytically,

towards the freedom of choice issue, which as we have mentioned was introduced by the liberal

political theory and has led to policies of privatisation, it is in sharp contrast to theories and policies

that lead to a control of education by the market forces. As mentioned previously, liberal approaches to

educational policy see the issue of individual freedom as the most important condition that should be

satisfied by every educational policy and therefore they are in favour of a decrease of state

intervention. However, as far as the modern capitalist state and the New Right policies are concerned,

Chitty(1989) makes an important distinction between the liberal and the conservative wings of the

New Right movement and argues that the conservative wing is reluctant to reduce state intervention.

The imposition of the centrally controled National Curriculum in England in 1987 is an action

illustrative of the state interventionist policies of the conservative New Right, which in this way has a

common feature with marxism, although they are at the exact opposite ends of the ideological

spectrum.

Furthermore, Dale's(1989) analytical approach suggests that in fact freedom of choice is very limited

in particular in the public sector. He suggests that 'there is no intrinsic reason why parental

involvement in education should be attached to a private interest rather than a public interest view of

its purposes' and therefore he says that choice should be increased within the state sector but at the

same time he also supports an increase of the realistic alternatives to the state sector, because as far as

Britain is concerned, 'over much of the country there is no choice of secondary school because there is

only one within a traveling distance'(Dale,ibid,pp.118,120) This is true for Greece too.

Welfare State approaches

The development of social welfare policies is based on the argument that the state should secure a

certain level of well-being for all its citizens. According to George and Wilding(1984) and Adler et al

(1989), the welfare policies mainly involve the sectors of employment, social security, housing , health

and education. A main feature of the welfare state theories is that they see the welfare character of the

12

state as a network of institutions that operate complementarily and are mutually connected to each

other. Consequently, education is not examined individually but it is connected to the whole network

of social services of which it is seen as an integral and vital part.

The welfare state approaches are critical of the policies of liberal governments. However, according

to Adler et al(1989), as far as the issue of parental choice of education is concerned, they agree with

the liberal theories up to a certain point. Adler et al(ibid) also argue that the state should develop social

welfare programmes which would provide benefits and services to citizens with the final aim to

promote collective welfare. Adler et al(ibid) argue that the crucial question regarding social welfare

programmes is the extent to which they secure a balance between the individual rights of the 'clients'

and the collective goals in the field of education.

Apart from the enhancement of aggregate levels of well-being, according to Adler et al social

welfare programmes aim at the establishment of equal educational opportunities by 'promoting the fair

or equitable treatment of particular client groups' or by achieving 'fairer or more equitable

outcomes'(Adler et al,ibid,p.1). In brief, George and Wilding(1984) cite the reduction of inequality, the

abolition of poverty and the forging of a new social unity as the central objectives of the welfare state

policies.

Pluralist approaches

The so called pluralist approaches to educational policy stress the fact that power in society is

distributed among several interests and that the policies are formulated through a negotiation between

the various interest groups and the government. In that sense they are the ones that are the closest to

the arguments that are presented in the following chapter.

Pluralists attempt to interpret the educational change by analysing the relationship between

education, state and society. In this analysis they adopt some of the marxist points whereas they

criticize others. Thus, for instance, Salter and Tapper argue that

'It is a part of our thesis that schooling is construed by the needs of capital-[as marxists argue]- but if these needs influence the process of educational change they must be expressed in effective political terms. It is during this stage that the tensions, even contradictions, in the needs of the capital will be revealed'(Salter and Tapper,1981,p.31).

13

According to them, the social functions of the school are to provide 'qualified individuals for the labour

market', to act 'as an agent of social control' and to 'serve as a resource of private consumption'(Salter

and Tapper,ibid,p.37). They are mainly interested in the analysis of the way that educational authority

is exercised and of the role of the state in these authority relationships, in the process of formation of

policies and in educational change. They see educational policy making as the 'process whereby the

various pressures for educational change are translated into formal governmental expression'(Salter

and Tapper,ibid,p.87). Therefore, in order to study the process of formation of educational policies

they suggest that we need to analyse the factors that are pressing for educational change, the way that

these pressures are converted to political demands and the structures that regulate this conversion.

Hargreaves suggests that 'there are two contrasting traditions in the study of educational policy:

pluralism and Marxism'(Hargreaves,1985,p.65). He tries to combine them 'in a theoretically open and

empirically grounded way'.(Hargreaves,ibid,p.80)

Dale criticises pluralism and he cites Offe's(1981) argument that

'pluralist theory tends to explain the existence, strength, and particular articulation of interest organisation by reference to properties of the constituent elements of the organisation: their values, their willingness to sacrifice resources for the pursuit of their interest, their numbers, and so on. That this type of explanation leads at best to a very limited understanding of the dynamics of interest representation becomes evident as soon as we realise that an identical number of interested individuals with identical degrees of determination to defend and promote their interest may produce vastly different organisational manifestations and practices, depending on the political-institutional status their organisation does or does not enjoy. The concrete shape and content of organised interest representation is always a result of interest plus opportunity plus institutional status. To employ structuralist language, we can also say that interest representation is determined by ideological economic and political parameters'[cited by Dale(1989,p.112)]

In turn, pluralist approaches criticise the New Right educational policies implemented in Europe and

the United States, which aimed at the privatisation of education, the limitation of the role of local

authorities and the reinforcement of the role of central government in certain areas. Thatcherism,

which is an example of implementation of New Right policies, 'attempts to stand both for

modernisation and progress and for tradition and stability. The neo-liberal influence emphasizes an

orientation to the future, constant adaptation to new circumstances and an absence of state controls, the

neo-conservative influence stresses an orientation to the past, traditional values and collective

loyalties'.(Ball,1990,p.213). Kassotakis(1994) mentions the appearance of educational neo-

14

conservatism in Greece in 1990 with the assumption of power by the New Democracy Party. As

regards England, Ball argues that the 1988 Act in England can

'be read as signaling the break-up of a national state education system. There is massive potential for greater diversity among schools, but beyond this the separation between the state and private sectors is being blurred.[...] Alongside this, aspects of the Act reduce signifficantly the historic role of local government in educational provision and management'.(Ball,1990,p.214)

At this point, it should be mentioned that to some extent Ball's(ibid) approach deviates from the

traditional pluralist path. As he himself explains, he is rather a Weberian neo-pluralist than a traditional

pluralist and he particularly adheres to the belief that in capitalist societies the economic and business

interests act in such a way that results in the unequal distribution of power in society and impedes the

development of the role of representative institutions. This kind of emphasis placed by Ball explains

his severe criticism of the New Right policies analysed above.

15

2. An interpretation of educational policy

Although the preceding approaches to educational policy provide an explanation of the ideology that

is behind the implementation of a certain educational policy, the making of educational policy should

not be considered merely as an attempt to apply a certain political ideology like the ones presented in

the previous pages. Baldridge defines policy as 'an official commitment to certain goals and

values'(Baldridge,1989,p.63). Thus, this commitment to goals and values should not be seen merely as

the outcome of a pure political will, because it is largely dependent on certain essential problems of

education and the attitudes that are taken towards these problems by the various clashing interests that

intervene in the policy making and implementation process.

Kogan(1975) identifies parliament, central government, local government, teachers, the centres of

academic and research work, students' and parents' interest groups as the main parts of the decision and

policy-making system. It could be argued that the former two parts, i.e parliament and central

government possess a prominent place in this system, but their actions always depend to some extent

on the interests of the other groups mentioned above. It could be suggested that although pluralists

identify the intervening and negotiating role of all these interest groups, they do not suggest which of

these interest groups possess a prominent place in the policy-making process, whereas marxist theories

do stress the importance of the groups that represent the state. On the other hand, although liberal

approaches theoretically stress the prominence of the individual rights, in many cases and in particular,

as we mentioned in the previous chapter, in cases where conservative New Right policies were

implemented, which derive from the liberal ideological spectrum, the state interests are given

considerable significance. Supporters of the welfare state prefer to attribute equal importance to all

interest groups. In fact, it could be suggested that the supporters of social welfare programmes stand

somewhere in the middle between liberal and marxist approaches, because, as we mentioned in the

previous chapter, they are trying to achieve a balance between the individual rights and the collective

public interest.

Lane(1993) attempts to explain the making of public policy by referring to the principal-agent

problem as the crucial point in public policy-making, according to which the politicians, bureaucrats

and professionals in the various public institutions are the agents who are contracted to act according to

16

the interests of the citizens, who are the principals. This principal-agent concept is also applicable to

the relationship between the government and its agencies or bureaux.

The notion of the public interest is at the heart of the interpretation of the public policy-making

process. Public interest is a complicated or in Lane's(ibid) words a labyrinthine notion. Therefore, it is

no wonder that this notion is variously interpreted by the political theories. For instance, marxist

approaches suggest that the public interest would be best pursued by the intervention and the control of

the state,which would secure the existence of social justice through publicly provided education for all

the citizens, whereas liberal approaches largely connect the public interest with the safeguard of the

rights and the freedom of the individual. Lane(ibid) suggests that the public interest is not merely what

the majority of the community wants or an aggregation of interests based on a rational content. He

imposes a limitation in the definition of public interest and argues that 'only those interests could be

public that would be pursued by persons who not only disregard their irrational or non-rational

interests but also by-pass their selfish interests'.(Lane,ibid).

The crucial question is the extent that public policy and more specifically for our case public

educational policy is planned by agents in order to serve the public interest and contribute towards the

achievement of justice and equity and the extent that agents pursue selfish interests. It is true that the

intervention of selfish interests in the policies pursued by state agencies cannot be avoided. After all, as

Lane points out, the concept of interest "has an individualistic 'import' as interest denotes basically

what various persons wish"(Lane,ibid,p.6). Liberal theoretical approaches emphasize the existence of

this individualistic import in their intepretation of public interest. The individualistic import of the

notion of public interest mentioned by Lane implies that public institutions do not always implement

the state interest or the official interests. At the same time though, Lane(ibid) is critical of the public

choice school approach that overestimates the selfish character of the public interest, which sees it

merely as the outcome of an aggregation of individual self-interests. He finds this approach very

simplistic, as it ignores the existence of individual interests that are not only wishes about oneself but

also wishes about social states. In other words, it is suggested that the promotion of selfish interests is

likely to involve other persons as well and in that sense they could have a vicarious character. As

Lane(ibid) mentions, the nature of the interests determines the way they are handled, but this also

depends on the type of public institutions involved in the handling of these interests. In brief,

17

Lane(ibid) argues that public policy-making and implementation is a matter of interest coordination,

something that is also identified by Archer(1985) with the difference that she uses the term negotiation

instead of the term coordination. Salter and Taper(1981) who adopt an approach to educational policy

based on a pluralist ideology also particularly emphasise that educational policy is largely a matter of

change that emerges through bureaucratically controlled negotiations.

At this point, it could be suggested that among Kogan's(1975) identified participatory parts in the

decision and policy-making system of education, parliament and central government have a positive or

innovative power, because they are the parts responsible for the implementation of the various interests

after they consult the interest groups and in particular those that participate in Archer's(1985) external

transaction type of interest negotiation. On the contrary, legitimized educational interest groups such as

teacher associations and student unions could be seen as having a negative or reactionist power in that

they hold some sanctions against government, if its policy is not in accordance with their claims. It is

true though, that, as Kogan(1975) argues, the sanctions that educational interest groups have at their

command are limited compared to the sanctions of industrial trade unions. For instance, he argues that

a teachers' strike

'is a serious irritant to parents, but not at all comparable with industrial action by miners or railwaymen. And it is not a sanction at all in the hands of university teachers, or vice-chancellors, or local authority associations'(Kogan,1975,p.77).

Kogan discriminates between the teachers' associations and the students' unions. In particular, he

argues that the former constitute more or less a part of the authorised system, whereas he refers to the

National Union of Students as a group with an aggressive and critical role, which 'is far more in the

style of a conflictual interest group than any other'(Kogan,ibid,p.76). Concludingly, it is argued by

Kogan that 'if the main associations are reactive rather than innovative, this may be because they

maintain, as a value, the right of local authorities and teachers to develop education rather than develop

it themselves'(Kogan,ibid,p.231).

Archer(1985) focuses on educational policy and breaks down educational-policy making into three

types of negotiation, which she calls internal initiation, external transaction and political manipulation

respectively. Internal initiation involves negotiation with internal interest groups such as education

personnel and possibly students or pupils. External transaction differs from the former type of

18

negotiation in that there is a larger variety of interest groups that are involved in external transaction,

which could be internal and external interest groups with the interaction of the former with the latter

being a voluntaristic one. Central government, local government, parliament are external interest

groups that are able to participate in this type of interest negotiation. Political manipulation constitutes

the alternative channel that is chosen by external groups who want to influence the making of

educational policy but do not have the resources that are required to participate in the interaction that

takes place at the external transaction level or type of negotiation. For instance, it could be suggested

that parents use this alternative channel of influence in order to promote their demands for the

education of their children. Archer(ibid) concludes that educational change is the outcome of all the

above forms of negotiation, which do not take place in isolation from one another but the outcome of

each level of negotiation affects the negotiation that takes place at the other levels.

Apart from the intervention of interest groups in the educational policy-making, Kogan(1975) sees

educational policy to be also a matter of adherence to certain values. In the previous chapters we

presented the main points and values of different theoretical approaches to educational policy. We are

also going to refer to Kogan's(1975,1985) attempt to categorise these values, because we believe that

this will help our interpretation of the educational policy-making process as well as the way that

interest groups intervene in this process.

Kogan(1985) discriminates between four sets of values: educational, social, economic and institutional.

Educational values involve beliefs about the qualities of the educated person. Social values mainly deal

with the issues of socialisation and equality. Kogan defines socialisation as 'the process by which each

generation is inducted into the norms of society'(Kogan,ibid,p.20). As far as education is concerned,

the key issue is the set of the purposes for which children are to be socialized. Equality has proved to

be a conceptually complicated issue. As Kogan argues, contemporary education sees equality as a

matter of reconciliation 'between differentiated learning for individual and common provisions for all

children'(Kogan,ibid,p.21). Economic values see education as a social investment and are mainly

interested in the return of this investment and in particular in the question of whether this return

justifies the particular level of investment made by society. As Kogan(1975) argues, social and

economic values should not be in conflict. On the contrary, he argues that

'social demand has become the imperative- a good to be provided- but education

19

may be so structured that it will also accommodate economic imperatives by providing, where necessary, higher education within categories that mould student preferences to economic needs'(Kogan,ibid,p.64).

It is questionable whether a liberal or a skill focused education will better serve the economic values of

the society as well as the well-being of the individuals. As regards the institutional values Kogan

emphasizes their importance for an interpretation of educational policy-making because 'much of the

activity of the main interest groups is taken up with their promotion'(Kogan,1975,p.65). As

Kogan(1985) mentions, they involve views of how institutions should be governed and their

interpretation varies according to the different meanings that different interest groups attribute to the

various institutional values. Accountability and reliability are, according to Kogan(ibid), the main

qualities that institutional values have to possess. In particular, Kogan (1975,1985) refers to the

participation or generation of community value as one of the newest as well as most ambiguous values,

which we examined in detail in our preceding discussion about the issue of parental choice of

education and the approaches to it of different political ideologies. The way that these values are

assessed by the contradicting interest groups determines the attitudes they take towards what

Dale(1989) calls the core problems of education systems, which in turn together with the current

political and social conditions determine the educational policies and result in a certain way of

monitoring of educational standards, which according to Gonzales and Beaton(1994), is increasingly

becoming one of the main concerns of politicians and researchers.

The concept of educational standards would be central to the following discussion of educational

policy on Hellenic primary education. The educational standards are an indicator of the conditions that

exist in an education system and therefore they could be helpful in our attempt to evaluate and contrast

certain educational policies that were implemented during the period examined by this study.

Thus, the discussion of the attitudes of the various groups that participate in the educational policy-

making process towards the core problems of education would be also related to the educational

standards of the Hellenic primary education system in the corresponding periods regarding its

performance, content, and opportunities to learn.

20

3. Subject of study method and research questions

The subject of this study is the analysis, interpretation and criticism of educational policy on

Hellenic primary education after the fall of the dictatorship and the political change to democracy in

1974, focusing on the two successive historical periods: 1974-1981 and 1981-1989. The time limits of

these two periods are determined by certain political and social facts. In the years 1974-1981 the

liberal-conservative government of the New Democracy party was in power, whereas in 1981 the

socialist government of PASOK(Panhellenic Socialist Movement) came into power and governed the

country till 1989. This governmental change had direct implications for the educational policy. After a

series of elections the New Democracy Party came again into power in 1990, whereas in 1993 another

governmental change occurred with the PASOK party coming in office again. These often

governmental changes during the nineties resulted in less extended reforms than the ones that took

place during the two previous decades.

In particular, this study is going to analyse the state policies and the main reformative attempts

during the period under examination, with the aim on the one hand to interpret the process of the

formation of these policies and on the other hand to evaluate the degree to which these policies

fulfilled certain educational standards. At the same time, an analysis of the educational policies in

these two historical periods will be attempted with the aim to identify the main differences and

conflicts between the educational policies of the two main political parties that governed the country.

Moreover, it is aimed to search the development of educational policy in the period under examination

as well as to analyse the main political factors that influenced the policies of the two parties and of the

interest groups that supported, influenced or opposed these policies. In our attempt to identify the

groups that are involved in the formation of educational policy we are going to analyse the role of the

political parties and particularly of those that were represented in parliament during the period under

examination, the role of educational administration, central and local, the role of teachers' unions as

well as the role of the scientific institutes of Hellenic education such as the Pedagogical Institute and

the Centre for Educational Studies and In-service training(KEME).

An important concept in the analysis and review of the educational policies in this study is that of

the educational standards. As Husen and Tuijnmann suggest 'a standard refers to the degree of

21

excellence required for particular purposes'(Husen and Tuijnmann,1994,p.2) In other words, the

standards are an indicator of the achievements of an education system and in that way they could be

used as a means of evaluation of certain educational policies. Husen and Tuijnman(ibid) refer to three

main types of educational standards: performance standards, content standards and opportunity to learn

standards. In the following discussion this classification of education standards will be used in our

review of the educational policies on Hellenic primary education. The analysis of the educational

policies will reveal the views of the groups involved in the policy-making process about what the

desired educational standards should be and the focus will be on points where conflicting views will be

discovered.

Another important concept in our analysis would be what Dale(1989) calls core problems of

education. It could be suggested that whenever we discover conflicting views about the appropriate

educational standards, then there exists an educational problem. In that sense, the existence of single-

class primary schools in rural areas (schools with one teacher) could be considered as a problem of

Hellenic primary education related to its performance standards. On the one hand, teachers and their

associations have mentioned that these schools provide second class education. Many school advisers

and certain political parties agree with this view and also from a cost-benefit point of view it seems

that the mainteanance of such schools constitutes an irrational organisation of the educational system

and a waste of resources On the other hand though, the development of a policy aiming at the merging

of these school units is opposed by the local authorities in the places where schools are to be abolished.

Thus, this issue which by some groups is considered as a problem by other groups it is seen as the

correct policy regarding the perfomance standards of primary education. The existence of this problem

is also connected with the way that the Hellenic society is structured, e.g the unequal geographical

distribution of the population, the relationship between the centre and the regions, the structure of the

political system etc.

According to the preceding discussion the identification of the educational problems regarding the

standards of an education system is a matter of adherence to certain values and political ideologies but

it is a matter of interest intervention as well. In order to identify these problems we are going to search

the issues that are set as problems by a certain policy which takes action to face them or at least puts

them in the political agenda without solving them. We are also going to search the issues that are

22

raised by the previously mentioned groups involved in the educational policy-making process(political

parties, teachers' associations etc.) as well as those raised by educational research.

The review of the policies in relation to their response to certain educational standards is the

outcome, on the one hand, of the connection of these policies with the historical and social context and

on the other hand of the connection of the empirical framework of the policies with the problems

raised by theory. It could be suggested that the previously discussed theories already identified the

problems at a level of abstraction. According to the general values they adopt, they take certain

attitudes towards these problems. In that sense, theory provides the essential basis for the identification

of the problems of policies as well as their evaluation. For instance, the theoretical approaches have

already set the problem of the relationship between the private and the public sector in education.

Thus, these approaches lead us to issues related to policies in favour of widening the provisions of

public education -as marxist or welfare state models would suggest- or to policies of privatisation and

decrease of state intervention- as liberal models would suggest.

Additionally, the theoretical debate has set the issue of the existence of certain educational standards

as a prerequisite of social reproduction and well-being of the citizens. This demand is mainly put by

the approaches of the welfare state as well as by marxist approaches but it is also to some extent

supported by liberal approaches, although, as we have already mentioned, the latter question the public

character of educational provisions. According to Husen and Tuijnmann(1994) the concept of the

educational standards includes performance standards, content standards and opportunity to learn

standards. Performance standards of primary education include issues like the period of compulsory

schooling, illiteracy rates, content standards involve curricular issues, whereas opportunity to learn

standards involve policies aiming at the safeguarding of equal opportunities and the abolition of the

internal inequalities of the educational system. The fulfilment of these standards is also related to the

issue of the public character of education. Thus, marxist and welfare approaches would like to see

these standards reached through contemporary public educational functions, whereas liberal

approaches would favour private initiative which would let parental choice free.

The issues that will be discussed in the second part of the study will be identified through the

connection of the policies on Hellenic primary education during the period under examination with the

general theoretical debate about the analysis and interpretation of educational policy. In that sense, this

23

study is aiming at a critical approach of the educational policy that was implemented in Greece in the

years that followed the 1974 re-establishment of democracy in the country

In particular, the following questions are going to be discussed

-Which are the aims of the main political and reformative attempts that were implemented by the state

in the periods 1974-1981 and 1981-1989 in primary education as well as whether there are any issues

that were neglected by these aims and attempts.

-Which are the essential differences between these policies as regards the way they handled the

performance, content and opportunity standards of education.

-Which are the groups that mainly influenced the state policies.

The analysis of the above questions is going to provide us with the evidence upon which we are

going to base our criticism. This criticism will involve the way that these policies were formulated, the

correlation between their aims and their results, as well as the evaluation of these policies in relation to

their perceptions of problems regarding the standards of primary education.

At this point, it should be mentioned that the preceding theoretical discussion, from which we

formed the theoretical concepts that will be used in the following analysis, mainly refers to the British

society and educational system. Therefore, the essential differences between the structure of the

educational system to which the theoretical debate is referred and the Hellenic education should be

mentioned. Such differences are the decentralised structure of the British educational system as well as

the fact that while parental involvement in school administration is legitimized in the U.K., in Greece,

as Duncan mentions, the educational system 'brooks no power sharing with

parents'(Duncan,1982,p.12). Thus, in our attempt to use this theoretical framework for the

interpretation of the educational policies in Greece, we should bear in mind the existence of certain

differences between the British and the Hellenic educational systems, like the ones mentioned above.

24

PART II

STANDARDS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN GREECE AND

THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY SINCE 1974

1. The opportunity to learn standards.-Equality of educational

opportunities

According to Bottani and Tuijnman(1994), opportunity to learn standards mainly include the inputs

into education and in the following pages we are going to search whether the implemented policies

resulted in the provision of equal educational opportunities for all the student population of the

country. Thus, it is obvious that we are going to search factors that cause differences in performance

within a country which according to Postlethwaite(1994) were not as successfully measured as

differences in achievement between different countries, as far as the measurements conducted by the

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement(IEA) are concerned. In

particular, we are going to discuss the views about compensating policies that were implemented in

order to balance the existing inequalities of opportunities as well as the public versus private education

issue.

In the recent years the problem of social inequality in education has been discussed by some studies

regarding Greece. From this relatively small number of Greek studies that discuss this problem it is

concluded that selection and reproduction of social inequalities are two existing features of the

Hellenic educational system.

Iliou(1984) has found the rural, women and ethnic minority population to have limited educational

opportunities and Palios(1984) also argues that students who come from the village or the country

town are at a disadvantage compared with students who come from Athens and Thessaloniki, the two

main urban centres of the country. Papakonstantinou(1986) searches the relationship between school

achievement and social origin in compulsory education. His theoretical analysis is based on the marxist

approach to the relationship between education, society and the state. His study found a strong

relationship between school achievement and social origin and he concludes that 'the Hellenic school

today is a capitalist school that goes under a phase of a timid

25

modernization'(Papakonstantinou,1986,p.204). Fragoudaki(1985) also argues that according to the

existing research evidence it appears that 'school achievement is determined by social

origin'(Fragoudaki,1985,p.185), whereas Rougeri cites the conclusions of Katsikas' study who argues

that 'children of families with low non-fixed income, children of illiterate parents, immigrants, refugees

and gypsies are more likely never to complete compulsory education'[cited by Rougeri(1996,p.67)]

The 1975 Committee for Education in its report (MNERA,1975) does mention the issue of the

equality of opportunities but only as regards private education. DOE(Primary school teacher

Federation of Greece) in its discussion of Law 1566/1985 on the Organisation of primary and

secondary education stated that education should be based on 'the safeguarding of equal opportunities

in education for all children irespectively of their social and economic situation, the cultural level and

the geographical area of their residence'[Teaching Tribune1,1985,(966),p.3]. In that spirit the vice

president of the union suggested 'as a first step[...] the inter-curricular assistance and as a next what we

call all-day school'(Teaching Tribune,ibid,p.7).

PASOK's 1981 pre-election programme also mentions that 'additional educational assistance would

be provided in primary school for all the pupils who need it', although there is no clear reference to

equality of opportunities.(PASOK,1981,paragraph 92). Instead, there are more general references to

the surpassing of discriminations and to the equality of the two sexes. The left puts particular emphasis

on the problem of lack of equal opportunities in education. In its 1981 pre-election programme it

demands that 'class barriers should be abolished, the unified nine-year compulsory school should be

put into practice and equal opportunities for the education of all the young people should be

secured'[cited in Teaching Tribune(1981,901,p.3)]. KKE suggests that education should be

democratized and modernized and that private education should be abolished.

New Democracy referred to the equality of opportunities only in its 1989 pre-election programme

where it is stated that 'the equality of opportunities in education imposes the equality on the starting

point and on every point of the educational progress of young people', but it is mentioned that private

education should also exist 'in order to secure the right of free choice'(ND,1989,p.11).

New Democracy criticizes two changes that occurred in the eighties which could be considered as

the most important ones regarding the bluntness of educational inequalities. These are the abolition of

numerical marking in primary school, which as Kassotakis mentions was replaced by 'qualitative

26

profiling evaluation techniques' and of the examinations in primary school and the gymnasium, the

lower compulsory secondary school(Kassotakis,1994,p.110).

Maurogiorgos is particularly critical of the policies implemented by New Democracy when it

reassumed power in 1990 and he argues that 'at least one hundred years of criticism have not been

proved enough for a persuasive and effective challenge and question of conservative choices in

educational policy making'(Maurogiorgos,1990,p.15). He further argues that 'education is becoming a

more and more expensive matter, the educational changes do not materialize the promises for equality

of educational opportunities'(Maurogiorgos,ibid,p.21).

Some compensating programmes such as supportive teaching and the Programme of Creative

Occupation of Students-children of Working Parents2 were put into practice in the eighties and it is

true that such programmes constitute remarkable initiatives. However, the implementation of these

initiatives remained at an experimental level mainly because of various problems such as lack of

resources or specialized teaching staff.

As regards the public versus private education debate it should be mentioned that according to the

1975 Constitution 'education constitutes a basic mission for the State' and also

'all Greeks are entitled to free education on all levels at State educational institutions. The State shall provide financial assistance to those who distinguished themselves, as well as to students in need of assistance or special protection, in accordance with their abilities'(Appendix).

This public-state provision of education is connected with the equality of opportunities issue,

although the existence of the former does not necessarily secure the existence of the latter.

It is true that the provision of public education in Greece is inadequate, something that has been

suggested even by ministers of education. For instance, Kontogiannopoulos, who became Minister of

Education in the 1990 New Democracy government and was also Undersecretary of Education from

1976 till 1981, argues that "the famous 'free' Education is nothing else than one more myth of the

irresponsible demagogy and the main cause of today's standard of public education. Because the

Hellenic state never had the economic strength to undertake the cost of an Education with quality that

would be offered without exception to all the children of the Greek

people"(Kontogiannopoulos,1991,p.38).

The parallel provision of private education is established by the Constitution(article 16, paragraph

27

8). However its role was questioned several times. Thus, the 1975 Committee for Education mentions

that private education 'has become a serious social problem'(MNERA,1975,p.29).

In Teaching Tribune[1983(935)] DOE suggests the generalization of pre-school education, the

foundation of Child Centres as well as the abolition of private schools.

The left also expresses its disagreement with the operation of private education and Farakos(1984)

suggests that private education should be gradually absorbed by public education, which has to be

upgraded. PASOK in its 1981 pre-election programme also argues that private education should be

abolished, but it suggests that 'provisions should be taken to secure the people who are currently

employed in private education' as well as that 'those of the claims of the school owners that are fair

would be met by the Constitution'(PASOK,1981,paragraph 103). However in the following years

PASOK seems to take a more friendly attitude towards private education, because we cannot find any

similar suggestions. It rather prefers to speak for a general upgrading of public education instead.

New Democracy is a defender of private education, something that is particularly evident in its 1989

programme, where although it is accepted that 'the state has the duty to provide the citizens with

education in public schools of high quality' it is also suggested that 'private initiative has the right of its

free expression in the educational sector', something that is a clear indication of adoption of neo-liberal

approaches(ND,1989,p.26).

In general, it is a fact that, in the period we examine, the deficiences of the public sector of

education continued to exist and that the PASOK governments did not take any measures against the

development of private education despite PASOK's pre-1981 criticism of private schooling.

28

2. The content standards

Husen and Tuijnman argue that the content standards 'define those parts of the content in the

curriculum that all students should master'(Husen and Tuijnman,1994,p.2), whereas Bottani and

Tuijnamn(1994) see the content standards as the processes of education. In our attempt to explore the

content standards of Hellenic primary education we are going to discuss policies on the primary

curriculum and the textbooks as well as policies on the close-related issue of primary school teacher

training and educational research.

According to Terzis(1988) the content standards are connected with the internal educational

reforms. He discriminates between internal and external educational reforms suggesting that the former

involve the organizational aspect of education, whereas the latter involve the so called 'core of

educational reality' and include reforms 'in the internal structure of school', 'in the selection of

educational goods and the learning contents' and the 'initial and in-service training of

teachers'(Terzis,1988,p.14).

One issue that is related to the content standards is the language question, which is going to be

discussed in the final chapter of this study. Fragoudaki(1987) suggests that the language question and

the conflicts about it hid the essential conflict within the bourgeois class between the bourgeois liberal

and conservative forces. The solution to the language question that was given in 1976 with the

establishment of demotiki3 as the language of instruction in schools does not mean that the

conservative forces ceased to exist and to press for a review of the current educational policy.

The debate about the educational reforms also deals with the issues of the curricula, the textbooks

and the teaching methods. According to the MNERA(1975) Report of the Committee for Education, a

completely primary curriculum should be designed with the participation of several groups such as the

Ministry of Education, teachers and educationalists. It is also emphasized that demotiki should be the

language of instruction. The report also recognizes the necessity of the introduction of foreign

languages in the primary curriculum, but it is suggested that this should happen in the future because

'at present we are not ready to offer foreign languages in the right way to the primary school

pupils'(MNERA,1975,p.19).

The report is very critical of the current textbooks of the primary school as regards their content,

29

quality and suitability. It is suggested that there should be three approved textbooks for each subject

instead of one so that the teacher would be able to make a choice. The free provision of textbooks is

suggested to be restricted only to indigent students. DOE would several times suggest the review of the

primary curriculum and the textbooks[(Teaching Tribune,1975,780), (Teaching Tribune,1979,854),

(DOE,1984)].

Another important curricular issue is the connection of the primary curriculum with the lower

secondary curriculum in order to have a unified curriculum for the compulsory schooling period. It is

true that DOE did not present any particular suggestions for this issue, whereas PASOK identified it

only in very broad terms when it mentioned that 'the nine-year compulsory education will become

essential' and thus it recognized that at that time compulsory education was not

essential(PASOK,1981.paragraph 101). In general, PASOK's 1981 pre-election programme talks about

a 'radical change of the content of studies'as well as a radical change of the teaching methods and the

teacher-student relationships(PASOK,ibid,paragraph 93) .

At the same time, KKE suggests 'the establishment of the unified nine-year school' through the

merging of the primary school and the gymnasium 'in order to avoid the unnecessary recycling of

knowledge, to control better the compulsory attendance of the student up to the end, to secure a righter

material and technical substructure with the union of the oligothesia schools4'(Farakos,1984,p.21).

The problem of the curricula and the textbooks was particularly emphasized by New Democracy in

the eighties, when it is in opposition. New Democracy(1989) suggested a periodic review of the

curriculum and the textbooks and it favoured the abolition of the one and only textbook per subject and

the establishment of free choice.

From the above mentioned views of the political parties and the union of primary school teachers

about the primary curriculum and the textbooks it is evident that the content standards of the Hellenic

primary education are problematic. The two main political parties which alternate in power accuse

each other for not raising the content standards through the modernization of the primary curriculum

and the textbooks.

The state policy regarding the content standards is the responsibility of the MNERA and was

implemented by KEME till 1985 and by the Pedagogical Institute from 1985 onwards which as

Terzis(1988) mentions were under the direction of the MNERA. According to OECD one of the

30

curriculum developments that has been observed after the creation of KEME was the 'preparation of

new and modernized syllabi for the kindergartens and the primary schools'(OECD,1980,p.146).

However, a more radical change occurred in the eighties when, according to Kassotakis(1994) and the

MNERA(1995) report, the nursery and primary curricula were completely revised. As MNERA(1995)

mentions, from the 1987-88 school year the foreign language was introduced in the primary curriculum

and the teaching of arts and crafts and physical education was undertaken by specialised secondary

school teachers. At this point, it should be mentioned that this last development is indicative of the

incompetence of primary school teacher education to provide specialised teachers, an incompetence

that continues to exist in the nineties.

Apparently, the most important development regarding the content of primary education occurred in

the eighties when PASOK was in power. However, as Terzis(1988) mentions these developments

failed to connect the primary curriculum with the lower secondary curriculum, something that should

have followed the establishment of the nine-year compulsory education. Thus, he argues that in certain

subjects such as history or religion students are taught twice the same things.

31

Initial and in-service training of primary school teachers

Primary school teacher education is a close-related issue with the content standards of primary

education, because primary school teachers are the persons responsible for the delivery of the primary

curriculum and the teaching of the subject matter included in the approved textbooks. Therefore,

curricular developments have to keep pace with developments in primary school teacher education.

As Bouzakis(1993) mentions from 1933 till 1982 primary school teachers were educated in the

pedagogical academies where they attended two-year courses. Bouzakis also mentions the lack of any

major change in teacher training after the fall of the dictatorship, despite the demands of the opposition

parties and teachers' unions for 'integration of the pedagogical academies into the

university'(Bouzakis,ibid,p.24).

Pedagogical academies were deeply criticized for the quality of education that they provided, for the

short duration of the studies and for the fact that they produced primary school teachers that according

to Bouzakis(ibid) were merely technicians. Moreover, the fact that the Pedagogical Academies were

disconnected from universities was criticized and it was suggested that it resulted in the academic,

social and ideological isolation of primary school teachers and indeed Bouzakis agrees that the

pedagogical academies 'were conservative and politically centrally steered

institutions'(Bouzakis,ibid,p.26).

32

TABLE 1

Level of education of primary school teachers

Level State schools Private schools Total

1 5,583 15.62 182 8.01 5,765 15.17

2 4,094 11.46 69 3.03 4,163 0.95

3 231 0.64 33 1.45 264 0.69

4 1,229 3.4479 3.47 1,308 3.44

5 29 0.081 0.04 30 0.07

Levels

1:Total number of teachers with postgraduate education

2:Teachers who received in-service training in Greece

3:Teachers who received in-service training abroad

4:Second degree holders

5:PhD holders

In each column the first number is the count and the second is the percentage. All percentages refer to

the ratio of primary school teachers at each level of education in relation to the total number of primary

school teachers employed in state and private schools.

Source:Process of data contained in ESYE(1995,p.75)

In the above table we can see the level of education of primary school teachers serving in the state

and private schools of the country in the school year 1985-86. According to this table 15.17 per cent of

the teachers have received some education beyond that of the Pedagogical Academy, i.e in-service

training or another degree. The largest difference is observed in the percentages of the state and private

primary school teachers that have received in-service training in Greece with that of state school

teachers being significantly higher. The most possible explanation of this difference is that private

education mainly employs teachers that have just completed initial teacher education and do not have

the required teaching experience to study in the schools of in-service training.

33

From the percentages contained in the above table it is obvious that the educational level of primary

school teachers is certainly low with only 15.17 percent of the teachers to have received some

education beyond that which granted them a qualified teacher status, which until the mid eighties was

the completion of a two-year course in the Pedagogical Academies. This fact is worrying because as

Papakonstantinou argues teacher education 'is the epicentre of the relative discussions because on the

form and the quality of education depends the success and effectiveness of teaching

practice'(Papakonstantinou,1986,p.17).

The need to upgrade primary school teacher education is recognised by all political parties but there

are different views about the form that it should take. In general terms, New Democracy seems to

favour an upgrading of the studies within the existing Pedagogical Academies, whereas PASOK and

the left support the integration of primary school teacher education into universities.

In 1982 by Law 1262/82 the university Pedagogical Departments of Primary Education and Nursery

School Teachers were founded. These replaced the Pedagogical Academies. They started to operate in

the academic year 1984-85 and provided four-year courses leading to a teacher qualification instead of

the two-year courses of the Pedagogical Academies. Papakonstantinou(1990) identifies certain

problems and inconsistencies that exist in the Pedagogical Departments. Thus, he argues that they

rather modernized the vocational training of teachers and kept them under the ideological and political

control of the state than liberated and promoted the development of educational studies.

As regards in-service training of primary school teachers, the most important development occurred

in 1985 when, as Bouzakis(1994) mentions, PEK(Regional Centres of Further Education) were

established by Law 1566/85(articles 28 and 29). However, the materialization of the provisions of the

above articles went under several phases and in the eighties occurred only at an experimental level in

the universities of Thessaloniki and Ioannina, which according to Bouzakis(ibid) made notable

attempts but, as he continues, in the early nineties the New Democracy government changed the mode

of operation of PEK and excluded the universities, the Institutes of Tecnological Education(TEI) and

the schools from the provision of in-service training for teachers and PEK came under the tight state

and ideological control.

34

Educational Research

It could be suggested that educational research is another issue that is close-related to the formation

of education practice and programmes, because this formation is to a large extent based on the

developments in educational research.

It is true that educational research is not very much developed neither in the newly founded

university Pedagogical Departments nor in non-university research centres. According to

Pesmazoglou(1987) the public expenditure for research was only 0.2 per cent of the 1985 Gross

Domestic Product.

Apart from the research done at academic level, educational research is also done at institutions

managed by MNERA, i.e KEME till 1985 and the Pedagogical Institute from 1985 onwards, which

according to Dervisis(1985) constitutes the most basic institution of the academic-pedagogical aspect

of education. According to the legal framework KEME and the Pedagogical institute consult the

MNERA on issues regarding the primary and secondary curriculum and textbooks and indeed they are

the main institutions which work out the curricula and textbooks of primary and secondary education

in the period we examine.

Gerou criticizes KEME for its centralised character and for the fact that it lacked autonomy and he

argues that 'the systematic research and study of the educational problems normally belongs to the

schools of education of the universities which should be founded in all the universities in order to

undertake, at last, the research of educational problems'(Gerou,1981,p.35). As we mention above, in

1985 KEME was replaced by the Pedagogical Institute. At this point, it should be mentioned that this

institute was initially established in 1964 but it was abolished in 1967 by the dictatorial regime.

Terzis(1988) compares the 1964 and 1985 Pedagogical Institutes and KEME examining the provisions

of the corresponding laws that founded these institutions. He finds many similarities as regards the

character, the staff and leadership appointments and the composition of the main and assistant staff. He

argues that this similarity of the three legal texts is problematic because the differences between 1964

and 1985 as regards the circumstances are highly important and they are not reflected by the 1985

legislation. Thus, he concludes that 'if the 1975 legislation simply restores the 1964 legislation, the

1985 attempt is something more than another restoration, it is an anachronism'(Terzis,ibid,p.98).

In general it could be suggested that neither KEME nor Pedagogical Institute have made the

35

expected contribution to educational research. As Terzis(ibid) argues it is impossible to reconcile a

dependence from the Ministry of Education with scientific research, "which is impossible to be done

by an 'administrative' service with expeditory or consultative[...] duties"(Terzis,ibid,p.81).

36

3.The Performance Standards

In this part educational policies will be examined in relation to the performance standards which

according to Husen and Tuijnman(1994) indicate how well students who enter an education system

with certain educational opportunities perform in its content areas. In particular, we are going to focus

on the issues of student dropout and illiteracy, on the internal differences among Hellenic primary

schools and also on an important determinant of the quality of education and thus its performance

standards, the expenditure on primary education.

Compulsory education and student dropout

These are two interrelated issues and both constitute indicators of the performance standards of an

education system. According to the 1975 Constitution 'the years of compulsory education should be no

less than nine'(Appendix). The question is to what extent constitutional directives are put into practice.

An examination of the student dropout percentages would be helpful in our attempt to answer the

above question.

37

TABLE 2

Allocation of school population of primary education in each grade. School years 1975/76-1980/81.

1975/76 1976/77 1977/78 1978/79 1979/80 1980/81

Grade

1st 163,401

2nd 155,751

3rd 154,507

4th 153,229

5th 151,408

6th 152,439

Source:ESYE(1986,p.47)

From the numbers contained in the above table it follows that 6.71 per cent of the students that

entered primary school in 1975 did not reach the last grade in 1980. According to the numbers

provided by ESYE the corresponding percentage for the next six years(1980-1985) is 1.34 per

cent(ESYE,1995,p.49). This is certainly a significant fall and indicates that in the early eighties nearly

all students attended at least the six-year primary school, something which is largely due to the efforts

that commenced with the 1976 educational reform and aimed at the raising of the school leaving age.

In particular, the policies of the extension of compulsory education implemented from 1976 and the

abolition of examinations and the numerical marking system in the primary school in the eighties

helped the unimpeded promotion of the students in the primary school grades. Thus, we would agree

with Iliou who argues that 'the establishment of the nine year compulsory education, the abolition of

the gymnasium entrance examination and the automatic promotion are very positive measures of

educational policy, despite all the reservations that may be expressed as regards the way they were

planned and implemented(Iliou,1984,p.70). Such reservations are based on the fact that, as

Markopoulos argues, after the application of the extension of primary education from 6 to 9 years in

the school year 1980-81

"the increase in the number of pupils who were registered in the first class of the 'Gymnasium' was not sufficient to make that number equal to the total number of pupils who had finished primary school. About 10 or 15 percent of the total of pupils who finished primary school received no further education"(Markopoulos,1986,p.200).

38

Finally, it should be mentioned that the actual percentage of students who do not finish primary

school may be a little higher due to the existence of a small number of children who never enrolled in

school, although it is true that from the eighties onwards such numbers tend to zero.

Literacy

This is a very important issue related to the performance standards of education with significant

social implications. Given the fact that, as Dimaras(1987) mentions, in Greece primary education has

been compulsory since 1834 and free since 1885, one would expect that the problem of illiteracy

would have been wiped out. However, research studies and statistical data show that the problem of

illiteracy still exists. Iliou identifies the groups that are educationally disadvantaged when she mentions

that 'the birth of a girl from poor parents in a remote village is not a good omen for a successful

attendance at school'(Iliou,1984,p.30).

TABLE 3

Illiterates and semi illiterates in counts and percentages in districts

Districts Population over 10yo Semi illiterates % Absolute illiterates %

Urban 4,754,913 570,567 12.00 248,492 5.23

Semi urban 945,333 170,752 18.06 95,813 10.14

Rural 2,514,795 540,520 21.49 362,416 4.40

Total 8,215,041 1,281,839 16.60 706,721 8.60

Source:Vergidis and Papakostopoulos(1984)

Table 3 indicates that in 1981 8.60 per cent of the population over 10 years old were absolute

illiterates, whereas 16.60 per cent did not finish elementary education and could be regarded as semi or

functional illiterates, who according to Gray(1956) are persons who have 'not acquired the knowledge

and skills in reading and writing which enable[them] in all those activities in which literacy is

assumed'[cited by Jansen(1989,p.309)].

According to the percentages contained in table 3 the problem of illiteracy is more serious in rural

areas. This fact as well as Vergidis' and Papakostopoulos'(1984) mention that 80 per cent of the

39

absolute illiterates are women confirm Iliou's previously cited argument.

Quite recently, in 1987, the problem of illiteracy was discussed by DOE and it asked for special

programmes for the fight against illiteracy in the primary school[Teaching Tribune,1987(1015)].

PASOK suggested that 'illiteracy has not been hit in its root'(PASOK,1981,paragraph 97). In 1989

New Democracy argued that the problem of illiteracy still exists mentioning that 'the quality of

education is low. Discouraging phenomena of ignorance in writing, reading and even in counting are

observed in the pupils of primary schools'(New Democracy,1989,p15). Vergidis and Papakostopoulos

mention that although illiteracy mainly involves old age groups 'it has not been entirely wiped out in

young ages'(Vergidis and Papakostopoulos,1984,p.20). The fact that until recently it was not

recognised that illiteracy involves young ages as well, resulted in the perception of this issue as a

problem only of the adult population and thus the implemented policies ignored the problem of

illiteracy in young age groups. The only measure that was taken to face illiteracy in schooling age is

the provision of support teaching which according to Kassotakis(1994) is given to children with

learning difficulties and to low achievers in primary school and the gymnasium from school year 1987-

88 onwards, but the application of this measure is restricted only to the large urban schools, whereas,

as mentioned above, the problem of illiteracy is more intense in rural areas. It is apparent that more

attention should be given to the problem of reproduction of functional illiteracy.

The primary schools

The performance of the students depends to a large extent on the qualities of the primary schools in

which they study. The OECD(1995) review of educational policy in Greece mentions that there are

sensational differences among schools as regards the quality of the buildings, the physical

environment, the quality of the equipment and the audio-visual aids.

The existence of many remote areas and on the other hand the overwhelming gathering of

population in the urban centres and mainly in the greater Athens area, where nearly one third of the

total population is gathered, results in the maintenance of a large number of schools with less than one

teacher per grade(oligothesia) as well as large school units with many classrooms in urban centres.

This fact creates many internal inequalities regarding the quality of education provided.

According to ESYE(1995) in the school year 1985-86 64.82 per cent of the Hellenic primary schools

employed from one to three teachers. As far as the pupil:teacher ratio is concerned, this varies from 18

40

pupils per teacher in rural areas to 27 in the greater Athens area and in Thessaloniki with the national

average being 23 pupils per teacher(ESYE,1995,p.47). According to Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides

et al in 1991-92 the national pupil:teacher ratio had further fallen to 20 pupils per

teacher(Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides et al,1994,p.2517).This improvement is not only due to an

increase of the number of teachers from 35,722 to nearly 39,000 but also due to a decrease of the

number of pupils(from 836,061 to approximately 791,000)in the correspoding years due to the decline

of the birth rate, a serious social problem which is particularly mentioned by Pantelouris(1980).

Current trends are even worse. In 1995-96 110,000 children entered the primary school(Free

Press,4/7/96,p.2), whereas in 1975-76 the corresponding number was 163,401(table 1), something

which means that in these twenty years that elapsed the number of students that entered primary

education decreased by 32.69 per cent. As a result of this decrease in the pupil numbers, in the next

school year(1996-97) 128 schools will be abolished and 130 will operate with less teachers because of

lack of pupils. This will have as a consequence the abolition of 501 places of teachers(Free Press,ibid).

TABLE 4

State primary schools in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.

Urban areas Semi-urban areas Rural areas

N of teachers

1 51 34 2852

2 57 38 1523

3 57 51 711

4 44 22 235

5 21 16 131

6 425 143 191

7 84 45 60

8 100 49 21

9 96 35 14

10 87 25 9

41

11 27 6 -

12 727 64 19

13 65 4 1

14 54 6 1

15 or more 78 2 1

Total 1973 540 5769

Pupils per teacher 26 24 18

Source:ESYE(1995,p.47)

The above table gives a detailed description of primary schools as regards the number of teachers

and the pupils:teacher ratios in school year 1985-86. According to this table the most frequent type of

primary school has twelve teachers in urban areas, six teachers in semi-urban areas and one teacher in

rural areas with the average pupil:teacher ratio being 26, 24 and 18 respectively.

Gerou identifies the implications in the quality of the education that have the schools with one and

two teachers as well as the over-subscribed schools in the labour settlements of the big cities. In

particular, he argues that

'from the 10000 primary schools that operate in the country, 5000 have one or two teachers and we cannot be proud for the elementary education that is provided in schools with one or two teachers, under the conditions they operate'(Gerou,1985,p.58).

Mantos (1982) also identifies problems that exist in the oligothesia rural schools, such as the little

amount of direct teaching that pupils receive which also makes it difficult for the teacher to know how

an individual pupil is working at any given time, the high failure and dropout rates and the low

intellectual and cultural background of the pupils' familes which results in very poor parental

involvement in school businnes.

As regards the over-subscribed schools of the working class areas in urban centres Gerou argues that

'these schools suffer'(Gerou,1985,p.58).

In order to face the problem of the over-subscribed schools Law 309/1976 established a

pupil:teacher ratio of 30, whereas Law 1566/1985 lowered this ratio to 25 for schools with one or two

teachers. As far as the problem of the small primary schools is concerned, although there was a general

42

consensus among the several governments and the primary school teachers' union regarding the

merging of oligothesia schools into central primary schools, the implementation of such a policy was

proved to be problematic mainly due to the local opposition of the residents of the areas where schools

were to be abolished. Law 1566/1985(article 4, paragraph 13) provided for the establishment of central

primary schools.

It is true that the number of oligothesia schools has been decreased, but this was mainly due to the

internal immigration of the population from the villages into the urban centres and not because of the

effective implementation of the policies mentioned above. Moreover as Ntountoulakis mentions very

often

'the pupils of schools with one teacher, which are abolished because they did not gather the minimum number of children(3-8 pupils), are obliged to attend another one-teacher school in another village'(Ntountoulakis,1989,p.265).

Educational expenditure

Educational expenditure is an important educational input which according to Bottani and

Tuijnman(1994) combined with social and cultural factors determines the outcomes of education and

thus, it is closely related to the performance standards of education but affects its opportunity to learn

and content standards as well. As Mantos(1982) mentions, public education is mainly financed through

taxation with current and capital educational expenditure being included in the annual state budget.

43

TABLE 5

Share of the total expenditure on primary education in relation to the total educational expenditure(a).

Share of educational expenditure on the state budget(b).

Year a(%) b(%)

1974 36.20 13.50

1975 36.46 10.40

1976 36.41 10.63

1977 34.38 11.69

1978 34.80 12.18

1979 37.21 11.24

1980 34.32 11.06

1981 35.02 10.50

1982 34.71 9.88

1983 33.38 9.72

1984 33.17 10.70

1985 31.57 10.20

1986 32.99 10.20

1987 32.81 9.47

1988 35.34 8.90

1989 30.27 8.54

1990 30.64 8.05

1991 32.62 8.16

1992 32.35 8.16

1993 31.56 7.32

1994 31.55 6.99

1974-81(mean)35.68 11.51

1981-89(mean)33.25 9.83

1990-94(mean)31.74 7.73

Source:a:process of data contained in MNERA(1995, table VI B5),b:MNERA(ibid,tableVI B2).

44

Table 5 presents the share of total educational expenditure on primary education in relation to the

total educational expenditure as well as the share of education expenditure on the state budget. From

the 1974-81,1981-89 and 1990-94 means we observe a decrease of both shares. As regards the

decrease of the share of expenditure on primary education we would agree with Kontogiannopoulou-

Polydorides et al(1994) who attributed it to the decrease of enrolments due to the fall of the birth rate

as well as the increase of the enrolments in secondary education that followed the extension of

compulsory education. Moreover, it could be argued that the establishment of post-compulsory

vocational and technical education and the continuous expansion of higher education also contributed

to this decrease of the share of primary education in educational expenditure. As regards the decrease

in the share of the total educational expenditure, the result was, according to Kassotakis, in 1985 the

total public education expenditure to represent only 2.9 per cent of the Gross National Product, the

smallest recorded for the EU countries(Kassotakis,1994,p.114).This fact is to a large extent due to the

high military expenditure of Greece because of the problems with its eastern neighbour, Turkey, which

result in the restriction of the expenditure in all other sectors including that of education. At this point

though, it should be mentioned that according to the OECD(1995) review, if in the total public

educational expenditure we add the private educational expenditure and the expenditure for studies

abroad, then Greece would be among the countries that devote the largest funds to education instead of

being among the countries that devote the lowest ones. In any case, it is a fact that an increase of the

total educational expenditure appears to be more than necessary, if Hellenic primary education

standards are to be further improved.

45

4. Reforms and policies on primary education

With the re-establishment of constitutional legitimacy and parliamentary democracy in 1974 the

issue of educational reform was brought forward again more emphatically by teachers' associations as

well as by political parties.

The New Democracy government proceeded to the development of a new legal framework for the

structure and the efficient operation of General Education. For this reason, the government formed

two committees which would draw up a law-plan5 for General Education. The first consisted of agents

of the Ministry of Education as well as representatives of the unions of primary and secondary school

teachers, whereas the second consisted of university tutors and teachers.

However, according to Dimaras(1979) the findings of these committees were very little considered

in the formation of the new legal framework for the organisation and administration of General

Education. Kazamias(1978) suggests that the main aim of the discussions that were held with the

participation of these committees before the 1976 educational reform was to calm down and balance

the contradictions within the New Democracy party between tendencies towards modernization and a

conservative liberalism.

Before we examine in detail the provisions of the main educational reforms that occurred in the

following years we should particularly focus on the Ministry of National Education and Religious

Affairs, as this is the main policy making body of the Hellenic education system, the administration of

which is highly centralised and bureaucratically organised as Mantos(1982), Holmes(1988)

Kassotakis(1994), and Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides et al(1994) mention. In particular, according to

Kassotakis

'all decisions pertaining to curricula, textbooks, school timetables, the appointment and advancement of teaching staff, the establishment and equipment of schools are made by the Ministry of Education uniformly introduced to schools'(Kassotakis,1994,p.110).

At the top of the MNERA stands the Minister who is assisted by two deputy Ministers. At the local

level there exist regional educational directorates for each level of education but as Holmes points out

'no independent departures from the countrywide uniformity of the education system are

permitted'(Holmes,1983,p.360). The Minister and the deputy ministers are political figures that are

46

appointed by each government, which in this way exercises its control over the Ministry. The fact that

the Minister is a political figure along with the fact that educational policy is almost exclusively

decided by him according to Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides et al 'holds the government directly

accountable to the electorate and thus subject to pressures from both the public and teachers'

unions'(Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides,1994,p.2516) Thus it could be suggested that through this

exercise of pressure the public and teachers' unions have a chance to negotiate their interests with the

government and to influence the educational policy making process.

The most important institutional arrangements that occurred in the educational reform of the mid

seventies are the Law 309/1976 'On the Organisation and Administration of General Education', the

Law 576/1977 'On Organisation and Administration of Secondary and Higher Vocational and

Technical Education' and the Law 186/1975 on the Organization of KEME(Centre for Educational

Studies and In-service training). According to OECD(1980), the main changes that were made by this

legislation are the extension of compulsory education from 6 to 9 years(ages 51/2 to 141/2, 6 years of

primary and 3 years of secondary education), the establishment of demotiki as the language of

instruction at all levels of education and the introduction of technical and vocational education as an

alternative to general education at the post-compulsory schooling level. The extension of compulsory

education was followed by the abolition of the entrance examinations to secondary education and the

introduction of entrance examinations to lyceum, the three-year post-compulsory secondary school

instead. This introduction was established by the Presidential Decree 503/1977. Curricula and

textbooks were partially revised and the study of ancient Greek texts in modern Greek translations was

introduced in gymnasium, the three-year compulsory secondary school(ages 111/2 to 141/2).

PASOK and KKE(Communist Party of Greece) deeply criticized these reforms and a milder

criticism was expressed by KKE of the interior(the second communist party participating in

parliament). In particular, Farakos, who was the President of the Section of Education of KKE's

Central Committee argues that

"the Right with its notorious educational 'reforms' attempted to give the youth limited and low-quality knowledge, far away from the contemporary conquests of science and technology and even from the achievements of the bourgeois thought and heritage, knowledge completely undermined"(Farakos,1984,p.11).

The other parties of the Parliament6, EDHK(Union of the Democratic Centre) and EDA(Union of the

47

Democratic Left) appeared to agree with the reforms to a large extent. Kazamias(1978) also argues that

as far as teachers' unions were concerned, they rather concentrated their criticism on the issue of

clearing of the sector of education of persons that were promoted by the previous dictatorial

government than on the content of the reform. Iliou(1984) suggests that the 1976 educational reform

surprised the political opponents of New Democracy, whereas it is basically accepted by all of them, in

the sense that they recognise its necessity and they simply point out that it delayed for many decades.

The deficiency of the other political powers,i.e of the centre right as well as the left to present an

alternative proposal for the structure and the content of education is obvious, despite the seeming

opposition that is expressed at the level of political confrontation. These political powers are in a

difficult position, because they see the progressive demands of the recent educational past to be

embraced by the party whose ideological predecessors opposed them. At this point Rokos(1982)

explains this policy arguing that the 1976 reform was imposed by internal (students and trade

unionists) as well as external(e.g lending from the World Bank) factors. As regards teachers' unions

they rather seem to follow the governmental suggestions than being ahead of them, with the sole

exception being their demand for university training courses for primary school teachers, as

Bouzakis(1993) mentions.

Kazamias(1978) argues that the 1976 reform was surpassed already from the time of its

establishment and that it was not based on academic debate and research, whereas OECD suggests that

in the policy statements of the 1976 reform

'one cannot[...] find[...] the scepticism or at best the uncertainties expressed in the international literature or policy documents of other countries regarding the economic or social powers of the education system'(OECD,1980,p.18).

In particular, Iliou(1984) argues that the educational reform changed neither the centralised character

of the Hellenic educational system nor the ideological base of education, the curricula, the textbooks,

the teaching methods and the training of teachers. Moreover, according to OECD, the political

alignments of the left expressed the fear that the reinforcement of the technical/vocational course

would create 'barriers to educational opportunity' because they believe that the 'intent to change the

flow of students after the compulsory stage so that a sizeable percentage would opt for the

technical/vocational course' would imply that it would become more difficult to proceed to general

48

post-compulsory education instead(OECD,1980,p.145).

Another interesting but rarely mentioned fact is that the 1976 educational reform is almost

exclusively concentrated on secondary education with the sole exception being the provisions for the

language of instruction. The establishment of demotiki as the language of instruction certainly affected

the performance standards of Hellenic education. The previously used katharevousa, a conservative

literary dialect which according to Mackridge

'represented an attempt to purge the modern language of words which it had taken from foreign languages and to reinstate much of the lexical and grammatical wealth of the ancient language which had lost during the two previous millennia'

differed very much from the spoken language, which is demotiki, and thus it had 'to be laboriously

learned'(Mackridge,1990,pp26,48). He concludes that the result of the use of katharevousa in

schooling was 'such a concentration on form that content had to be ignored'(Mackridge,ibid,p.49). It is

obvious that such an ignorance of the content cannot enhance the performance of the students. On the

contrary, it certainly made school learning more difficult and can be held responsible for the

reproduction of functional illiterates during the previous decades.

Apart from that change of the language of instruction, nothing else changes in primary education. As

Fragoudaki and Konduli point out

'there is a tradition in Greek society to call educational reform the changes that involve the lyceum7 and the universities. The educational misery of the country and the low educational level of its population are due to the educational stage where everything is determined for ever, the primary school. It cannot be a coincidence that we have not seen a reform in primary school since 1917'(Fragoudaki and Konduli,1982,p.115).

In other words, they imply that the absence of any reforms in primary education resulted in the

stagnation of its standards something that severely affected the quality of the whole Hellenic education

system. In general, we would agree with Dimaras'(1978) conclusion that despite the structural

amendments that were introduced by the 1976 reform,

'it has not changed the traditional conservative and authoritative character of the Greek educational system. It is very unlikely that it will help create a new type of mentality, a new approach to knowledge, a new culture, all of which have long been the rhetorical background of all liberal plans and appeals for reform'[cited by Pantelouris(1980,pp125-26)].

The reactions to the reform as well as to the general educational policy of New Democracy escalated

49

in the years after 1976 and up to the 1981 elections, after which the socialist party of PASOK came

into power. Political parties as well as teachers' unions are critical of the governmental policies as

regards the issue of the general democratization of the educational structures and the modernization of

the curricula and the teaching methods. However, six years after the 1976 reform Fragoudaki

mentioned that

'the problem is that at this moment there exists no other belief in Greek society than the one that was promoted by the 1964 reform and imposed by the 1976-1977 reform, neither among the political parties that have a say or an objection in educational policy nor among the unions of teachers'(Fragoudaki,1982,p.25).

In other words, it appears that the criticism of the opposition towards the educational policy of New

Democracy does not constitute a totally different perception of the relationship between education and

society, but it rather refers to partial changes in educational institutions. However, Bouzakis does argue

that whilst the 1976 reform was merely 'a regional proposal of bourgeois modernizations'in the reforms

that were implemented by the PASOK government in the years 1981-1985 a socialist change in

education takes place. He explains that this socialist philosophy is evident in the goals that are set in

the 1983-85 five-year programme 'in general for the carrying out of a socialist

reformation'(Bouzakis,1986,p.123).

According to the MNERA(1995) review the major reforms that took place in the years 1981-89

include:

-Law 1268/1982 'On the organization and function of AEI(university-level institutions)' which

introduced innovations such as the establishment of postgraduate studies and the expansion of student

participation in the decision-making of universities. As Bouzakis(1993) mentions this law also

abolished the pedagogical academies -which since 1933 provided training for primary and nursery

school teachers-and integrated primary and nursery school teacher education in universities with the

establishment of the pedagogical departments of primary education and of nursery school teachers

respectively.

Additionally the Centres of Higher and Vocational Education were replaced by

theTEI(Technological Educational Institutions)8 with the Law 1404/1983.

-Law 1566/1985 'On the Organisation of Primary and Secondary education' which attempted to

decentralise the decision-making process as well as the administration of education. Also with this

50

Law KEME was replaced by the Pedagogical Institute. This replacement as well as the previously

mentioned integration of primary school teacher education in universities contributed to the upgrading

of the content standards of Hellenic primary education in the way we analysed in the second chapter of

this part of the study. In the spirit of the previously mentioned decentralisation this law enhanced the

role of pupil societies with the establishment of pupil councils, in particular in the secondary schools.

More importance was given to teacher councils as well. For the first time this law also provided for the

involvement of parents' associations and of secondary school pupils in the school administration with

the provision for the participation of one parent in primary school Councils and Committees. School

Councils and Committees exist in every school and are responsible for the financial management of the

school and the raising of additional funds. Moreover, Law 1566/85 provided for the participation of a

parent representative in each of the regional Educational Committees which are based in cities and

towns throughout the country and according to Kassotakis 'offer advice to the city or town councils, on

school organisations, the allocation of grants to cover expenses of school units and the opening and

closure of schools, as well as the restoration of school buildings'(Kassotakis,1994,p.111). As regards

secondary education, in 1984 a new type of lyceum, the Unified Multivalent Lyceum was established,

which aimed at filling the gap between the general and technical post-compulsory secondary

education. The curricula and the textbooks of primary and secondary education were gradually

renewed.

It can be argued that the educational legislation of this period was very broad and left the

arrangement of more specific issues to further Presidential Decrees and in many cases very few

decrees were passed regarding the implementation of the provisions of the laws mentioned above. For

instance, according to the MNERA(1995) review this is the case for the Law 1566/1985

These two Laws (1268/1982 and 1566/1985) constitute the most important legislation passed in the

eighties regarding education. As far as the reaction to these reformative measures of the government is

concerned, New Democracy argued that the real educational reform occurred in 1976 with provisions

such as the establishment of demotiki as the language of instruction or the innovations in technical

education and argues that the internal changes that occurred aimed at the abolition of meritocracy and

the party control of education. At this point, we should point out that the MNERA(ibid) review also

mentions the fact that the reforms introduced by the socialist governments in the eighties involved

51

rather internal changes than changes in the structure of the system, like the ones introduced in the 1976

reform(e.g expansion of compulsory schooling, establishment of new types of schools in post-

compulsory secondary education etc). Thus, it could be suggested that the main concern of the reforms

in the eighties were the content standards of education. In particular, as regards compulsory education,

it could be suggested that the emphasis that was given to the content standards in the eighties was the

outcome of the new demands that compulsory education had to satisfy after the expansion of its

duration in the late seventies. The left which during the eighties is represented in parliament only by

KKE concentrates its criticism on the fact that pre-primary education was not widened enough and also

it is concerned with the influence of church in the state policies. As regards teacher unions, although

they have certain demands such as better pay and more appointments, they do not come into conflict

with governmental policies. The main reason of their satisfaction is that they saw their long-term

demand for integration of primary school teacher education into universities to be satisfied by the

governmental policies.

We are going to focus on the institution of Law 1566/1985 which is the main law-plan for education

brought by PASOK and has direct implications for the standards of primary education In the

introductory report of this law it is stated that it promotes the decentralisation which according to

Drakos is considered as the key structural change in PASOK's programme'((Drakos,1986,p.55). It is

also mentioned that it 'safeguards the participation of teachers, parents, pupils and of social and

academic authorities' as well as that 'it changes not only the external features of the system, but mainly

its internal ones, with the establishment of authorities, institutes and processes' and that 'it achieves the

democratization of education, which includes participation, social control and democratical

programming'[Teaching Tribune,1985(961),pp.3-5].

During the seven-month period that elapsed between the presentation of the law-plan and its

passing, a dialogue took place between the Ministry of Education and the educational people. The

initial reaction of the political parties was rather mild. On the one hand, the New Democracy Party

considered it as an acceptance and a supplement of its own educational reform of 1976, whereas KKE,

as it is mentioned in Radical(Rizospastis)9 (23/3/84), argued that 'as a whole it is not a backward

movement but it also 'does not move towards a real change, and therefore, the attempt of

modernization is not accompanied by measures of democratization.'[cited by Noutsos(1986,p.76)].

52

However, in Parliament both parties voted against the law-plan.

In general terms, teacher unions accepted the law-plan and expressed their support to the

government with statements such as that 'it will open the road to an education in the service of the

people and the country'[Teaching Tribune,1985(961),p.1].

It could be suggested that this law in general terms constitutes a positive step and that its most

important quality is that it provided for the participation of parents in education, although it is true that

these provisions did not give the parents an important role and that in the future they were neglected. It

also moved towards a decentralisation of the decision making process in educational policy, but as we

mentioned above most of its provisions regarding the participation of parents, teachers and pupils in

the decision making process were finally neglected and the dominance of the MNERA was not

challenged. Thus, we would agree with Kassotakis who argues that even after the reforms Hellenic

education 'still maintains its traditional, hierarchical bureaucratic structure, which frustrates any efforts

at substantial educational change'(Kassotakis,1994,p.110).

According to the MNERA(1995) review the main concern for policy planners in the nineties is the

quality of the provided education at all levels. Particular problems that have to be faced included the

overloaded primary and secondary school curriculum which according to Kontogiannopoulou-

Polydorides et al still focus 'on transmitting and acquiring fixed knowledge and national cultural

heritage' instead of cultivating cultural thought, the lack of adequate resources, the growing number of

teachers that wait to be appointed, but the most controversial issues that emerged in the ninties

involved higher education and in particular the attempt of the neo-conservative policies implemented

by New Democracy, which reassumed power in 1990, to establish private higher

education(Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides et al,1994,p.2516). According to Kassotakis and

Lambrakis-Paganos(1993), as regards primary and secondary education the New Democracy

government did not change the legislative framework but it only attempted a few modifications in the

spirit of its conservative policy.

53

CONCLUSIONS

From the general discussion about the problems in Hellenic primary education certain problems

were found to exist in all the categories of standards that we examined. At this point, as regards our

way of analysis, it should be emphasized that as Bottani and Tuijnman mention 'no single conceptual

scheme can usefully include all important aspects of an education system, because education is

multifaceted and multidimensional' and thus 'an accepted framework for organizing the education

indicators and depicting their complex relationships does not exist'(Bottani and Tuijnman,1994,p.51).

The forming of the interpreting framework was based on the critical presentation of the basic

arguments of the contemporary theoretical approaches to educational policy with an attempt to form a

dialogue between these approaches. Our interpreting framework sees education as a public function

that refers to the public interest and within the contemporary state it is seen as a policy with a

redistributing character which can serve the principles of social justice. At the same time, several

conflicting interests intervene and attempt to influence the state in the making of educational policy.

Consequently, educational reform is determined by an interest negotiation between groups within as

well as out of the state.

It is hoped that the understanding of the relationship among education, the state and society that is

discussed in the first part of this study combined with the analysis of educational policies in relation to

the standards of education constitutes an appropriate theoretical framework for the analysis of

educational policy in Greece. The forming of groups of educational standards that was developed in

the presentation of our methodology and put into practice in the second part of the study helps our

analysis to move beyond a descriptive comparison between the aims and the results of the

implemented policies and contributes to the understanding and criticism of educational policies and

reforms. It also facilitates the identification of the ideological and political conflicts and of the social

interests that intervene in the policy making process and promote, obstruct or readjust the educational

policy of the state.

In our analysis we found the existence of great social inequalities in Hellenic primary education and

the absence of adequate compensating provisions for these inequalities which require a reinforcement

54

and expansion of public educational provisions. Problems are also found to exist as regards the content

standards of Hellenic primary education as it appears from the content of the primary curriculum and

the textbooks, the inadequate initial and in-service education of primary school teachers and the

essential absence of educational research. Finally problems appear to exist regarding student dropout,

functional illiteracy and the financing of education.

In general terms, it is concluded that the preceding analysis of educational policy on Hellenic

primary education confirmed the absence of consensus among the groups involved in the making of

educational policy as regards the facing of problems and deficiencies concerning the opportunity to

learn, the content and the performance standards. Comparatively, the greater degree of consensus as

regards the views about the policies that should be implemented in the several standard areas of

primary education that are mentioned above is found to exist in the area of the performance standards.

For instance, the policies of the extension of compulsory education from six to nine years were widely

accepted. A greater differentiation of the policies is observed in issues related to the opportunity to

learn and to the content standards.

It could be suggested that the political parties play an important role, because they intervene in the

negotiation between the state and the teachers' unions, which according to Archer's(1985) model takes

the form of internal initiation. In our analysis we found that most political parties adopted demands put

by teachers' unions with the aim to increase their influence on these unions at the expense of the other

political parties. The intense intervention of the political parties in the above interest negotiation is

indicative of the direct relationship of the Hellenic educational system with the political system, which

is mentioned by Palios(1986) as one of its most distinct features. It could be suggested that another

distinct feature of the Hellenic educational policy making is its ultracentralised character and the

dominant role of the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs which, as Starida mentions,

'has been the centre of decision making leaving all other groups outside this

process'(Starida,1988,p.102).

This study attempted a general analysis of educational policy in relation to the standards of

education. It is doubtless that more specific studies in each area of standards need to be done and

possibly in other areas. These studies could reveal other interesting aspects of the negotiation and

distribution of educational authority and thus they would contribute to a deeper understanding of the

55

educational policy making and implementation process.

56

NOTES

1.Publication of the Primary school teacher Federation of Greece(DOE).

2.This is a programme of occupation of children within the school and after the end of the school

programme(in order to cover the working hours of parents) with activities such as art education, sport,

preparation for the subjects of the next day.

3.The modern Greek language acquired two forms. One is demotiki, which is the language of common

speech and the other is katharevousa, a conservative literary dialect. The question of whether demotiki

or katharevousa should be used for instruction in schools was a major problem for policy makers of

Hellenic education and constituted the so called language issue which in the past was rather a general

social problem than an education specific one that according to Holmes 'has led to rioting in the streets

of Athens to bloodhood and even death'(Holmes,1983,p.346). Holmes(ibid) gives a brief and

comprehensive account of the language issue in his report on Greece. A more detailed descritption of

the Greek language question is given by Mackridge(1990).

4.Rural schools where a teacher may teach to a class composed by students from more than one grade.

5.Equivalent to the British Bill.

6 A detailed presentation of the contemporary political scene in Greece can be found in

Clogg,R.(1987) Parties and elections in Greece. The search for legitimacy. London:C.Hurst&Co.

7.The post-compulsory three-year school.

8..These could be compared with the former English polytechnics.

9.Official newspaper of KKE.

57

APPENDIX The Constitution of Greece Article 16

1. Art and science, research and teaching shall be free and their development and promotion shall be an

obligation of the State. Academic freedom and freedom of teaching shall not exempt anyone from his

duty of allegiance to the Constitution

.

2. Education constitutes a basic mission for the State and shall aim at the moral, intellectual,

professional and physical training of Greeks, the development of national and religious consciousness

and at their formation as free and responsible citizens.

3. The number of years of compulsory education shall be no less than nine.

4. All Greeks are entitled to free education on all levels at State educational institutions. The State shall

provide financial assistance to those who distinguish themselves, as well as to students in need of

assistance or special protection, in accordance with their abilities.

5. Education at university level shall be provided exclusively by institutions which are fully self-

governed public law legal persons. These institutions shall operate under the supervision of the State

and are entitled to financial assistance from it; they shall operate on the basis of statutorily enacted by-

laws. Merging or splitting

of university level institutions may take place notwithstanding any contrary provisions, as a law shall

provide.

A special law shall define all matters pertaining to student associations and the participation of

students therein.

58

6. Professors of university level institutions shall be public functionaries. The remaining teaching

personnel likewise perform a public function, under the conditions specified by law. The statutes of

respective institutions shall define matters relating to the status of all the above.

Professors of university level institutions shall not be dismissed prior to the lawful termination of their

term of service, except in the cases of the substantive conditions provided by article 88 paragraph 4

and following a decision by a council constituted in its majority of highest judicial functionaries, as

specified by law.

The retirement age of professors of university level institutions shall be determined by law; until such

law is issued, professors on active service shall retire ipso jure at the end of the academic year at which

they have reached the age of sixty-seven.

7. Professional and any other form of special education shall be provided by the State, through schools

of a higher level and for a time period not exceeding three years, as specifically provided by law which

also defines the professional rights of the graduates of such schools.

8. The conditions and terms for granting a license for the establishment and operation of schools not

owned by the State, the supervision of such and the professional status of teaching personnel therein

shall be specified by law.

The establishment of university level institutions by private persons is prohibited.

9. Athletics shall be under the protection and the ultimate supervision of the State.

10. The State shall make grants to and shall control all types of athletic associations, as specified by

law. The use of grants in accordance with the purpose of the associations receiving them shall also be

specified by law.

59

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