2024-03-08 18:36:22
The government continues unabated to pass the draft law of the Ministry of Education on “Strengthening the Public University – Framework for the operation of non-profit branches of foreign universities”, at the same time that students and not only are escalating their mobilizations.
During today’s meeting, the ND parliamentary majority rejected the unconstitutionality claims filed by SYRIZA, KKE, Hellenic Solution, New Left and Niki in the plan. PASOK-KINAL and Pleussi Eleftherias were in favor of the anti-constitutional act.
As far as the mobilization front is concerned, a picket is planned for tomorrow Thursday, at 12 noon, in front of the command post of the Epirus Region, from where a march to the Castle will begin, where a giant banner will be hung. It will be followed by a roasting of the Student Associations in the little theater of Skala.
This afternoon, on the initiative of students and teachers of the University of Ioannina, they organized an action to defend the Public University, part of which was the offices of the “Continental Struggle”. Previously, the participants in the action had been outside the headquarters of the Region of Epirus, while then they moved towards the building of the Department of Architecture.
M. Tzoufi: The government is “destroying” the public HEIs
“Each bill of the Ministry of Education destroys public education and creates space for private individuals,” Meropi Tzoufi emphasized, speaking in the Plenary Session of the Parliament about the ND’s intention to allow the establishment of private universities.
The rapporteur of the New Left emphasized that the university community and the students are asking for the withdrawal of the bill, while a number of bodies such as ADEDY, GEOTEE and TEE are on their side. “At the same time, the government is proceeding with the commercialization and privatization of university education, having on its side the BSE, business interests and funds”, as he characteristically stated.
He then accused the government of systematically depreciating, understaffing and underfunding public HEIs to make private universities appear more attractive. In this context, he said that the bill contains a provision that changes the financial model of public universities for the worse, while he underlined that the EBE “cutter”, which was established to reroute thousands of candidates to colleges, is now also used as a tool for access to private universities.
With reference to the unconstitutionality of the bill, the MP from Ioannina underlined that “the bill is a product of ideological myopia for privatization and aversion to everything public, even if the Constitution, the laws and the rule of law need to be violated.” In fact, responding to the statement of Kyriakos Pierrakakis that “Greece cannot wait for the revision of Article 16 of the Constitution”, he said that “it is not Greece but the New Republic, the funds and the interests it serves”.