The school year that begins calendar today has been designated by the leadership of the Ministry of Education as “the year of the school,” emphasizing initiatives and actions to improve the educational process. But alongside the changes that are being initiated or have already been implemented in the school environment, the changes in Higher Education expected for 2025 are sparking interest in the new Greek academic map that will be drawn from the new year.

Change in schools

Multiple books, literary works, digitisation and prevention of internet addiction are an initial grid of actions announced for schools. At the same time, the first legislative intervention by the Ministry of Education in 2025 will “bring” a new network of schools, the Public Onassis Schools.

More specifically, in the second half of the current school year, the goal has been set for primary and secondary school students to hold in their hands books with complete literary works by “iconic writers” for which their “pedagogical suitability and aesthetic value” is “widely accepted,” according to the Institute of Educational Policy.

Thus, depending on the class, students will have the opportunity to get to know Greek and foreign writers such as Penelope Delta, Jules Verne, Kostis Palamas, Anton Chekhov, George Vyzynos and William Shakespeare.

The introduction of whole literary works in all grades of compulsory education is also the first step towards the introduction of the multiple book. With a planned launch in September 2025 in digital format, teachers will have a repository of digital resources at their disposal to familiarise themselves with the new approach to teaching and the choice of books to have as “allies” in teaching. This is a period of preparation that will start in the coming school year, until the universal implementation of the multiple textbook, which is expected to bring a completely different approach to teaching and learning from the one we have been used to so far.

Of course, at the opposite end of the spectrum to textbooks is the digital world and the facilities and innovations it brings. The Digital Tutorial has already been running since the beginning of the current school year, however, it will be enriched with materials for more classes in the coming months, providing support through asynchronous learning. In addition, it is expected that platforms such as e-schools and e-parents will be enhanced in the coming period.

In this context, it is recalled that the new school operating regulations have been implemented, which include a ban on the use of mobile phones, as a step towards addressing incidents of violence and bullying in the school environment. To this, and as part of the digital education of students, a tool for learning the correct use of the internet will be added, the educational material to be provided by the Personal Data Protection Authority called “TZIMANIUS”.

Primary and secondary schools will introduce educational play into their IT lessons in order to teach students how to manage themselves, their image, their relationships and their data in the digital world. The above, together with the programme developed in collaboration with Google, “Be an Internet Hero”, which has been integrated in the last three years in the Skills Workshops, through which children learn about safe navigation on the Internet, how to deal with phenomena on the Internet, where to go, etc., are also part of the National Strategy for the Protection of Minors from Internet Addiction announced last Monday.

Public Onassis Schools

Special mention, however, should be made of the network of Public Onassis Schools, the first of which are expected to be operational by September 2025. As announced during the last Council of Ministers, the Onassis Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, plans to transform 22 public high schools and lyceums into Public Onassis Schools (11 high schools and 11 lyceums) in vulnerable areas of Attica and the rest of the territory, proposing, as the Foundation says, “the public school of the future”.

The relevant legislative initiative is expected in early 2025 and, according to the first announcements, the network of these schools is expected to be upgraded not only in terms of structures and infrastructure, but also in terms of the educational process, giving more than 6,000 students the opportunity to participate in a new model of education that “will combine the content of public education with the pioneering, modern knowledge and skills required by the 21st century”.

This synergy, as stated on the Onassis Foundation’s side, “aims to open new horizons in public education, to bring the School of Tomorrow to today, building a future full of opportunities for all children, with a focus on schools open to local communities.”

New Academic Charter

As for higher education, the new map of higher education that will be drawn in Greece, following the establishment of non-state universities, but also the intensification of the internationalization actions of public universities, is expected with particular interest.

Intensification of the internationalization of the university and the intensification of the internationalization of the internationalization of the universities.
In particular, from January 2025, the period for submitting applications for the licensing and operation of non-state universities will begin. The deadline expires next March and the number of applications, together with the names of the universities that will take this first step, is expected with great interest. It is worth noting that according to the timetable, the first non-state universities will be able to start operating from September 2025.

In addition, partnerships between public universities and foreign educational institutions are expected to be strengthened, with a series of joint postgraduate programmes to be funded by the Ministry of Education through the Recovery Fund in the first phase.

It is also recalled that the presence of public Greek HEIs and their interconnection with the international educational community will continue in the new year through Study in Greece, the AMKE of Greek HEIs and a national body for their internationalization and extroversion.

The first bill

The first step of the first edition of the first Greek project.
The start of 2025 is expected to bring the first bill of the Ministry of Education, which was presented at the last Council of Ministers before Christmas.

The bill will include provisions to strengthen the autonomy of schools, the introduction of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in some of the Standard Lyceums in Athens and Thessaloniki, the operation of Standard Sports Schools, the regulation of Study Centres, as well as the network of Public Onassis Schools mentioned above. It is recalled that, based on the information available so far, the operation of IB sections in the Model Schools, as well as the opening of the Sports Schools is scheduled for the beginning of the next school year, in September 2026.