The gaps in teaching staff in Primary and Secondary Education remain despite the recruitment of permanent teachers and substitutes, according to the Educational Federation of Greece.

President of the federation, Spyros Marinis, during a press conference to mark the start of the school year, said that school vacancies are estimated at 18,000. Of those, about 10,000 are in primary education, meaning kindergartens and primary schools.

According to Marini, the figure applies to all disciplines and parallel support. Indicatively, in Athens, the vacancies are about 700, in Achaias 224, in Corinth 169, and in Euboea 152. In addition, he said about 50 percent of all-day schools are not operating.

“We hear big words, which try to hide the very big problems that are accumulating in education and are explosive,” the IOC president said.

In addition to school staffing problems, Marinis pointed to the issue of merging departments nationwide, with more than 1,000 departments closed, and, he said, “in many cases, this involves changing schools.”

In addition, he stressed that there has been a proliferation of inappropriate classrooms and containers in which students take lessons, and estimated that the 250 million euros announced to improve school infrastructure “will not be on the ground.”

All this, along with the demands of the sector, is expected to be discussed at the full meeting that the board of the DOE will have with the leadership of the Ministry of Education on September 18, 2024.