The students are on the “bars”, with the university professors on their side, as neither the assurances of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, nor of the Minister of Education, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, about the alleged upgrade of the public university, were able to convince them of its usefulness bill on private universities.
At the time when Mr. Pierrakakis presented the bill for admission to non-state universities, which will be put to public consultation from today, Wednesday, the student movement, which was not deterred by the criminalization of its mobilizations and the police repression of the squatters in Thessaloniki and Komotini, is preparing for Thursday’s nationwide rally in Propylaia, with students arriving in the capital from all over the country.
At the same time, the Executive Secretariat of the Panhellenic Federation of Teaching, Research and Staff Associations (POSDEP) condemns, with its announcement, “minority actions, repressive interventions, enforcement efforts and external interventions in universities, which cause tensions, disorient public opinion from the stake of defense of the public university and fuel an effort to discredit it”.
The students are not backing down – On their side, POSDEP and ADEDY
“We defend the right of student unions to fight democratically to secure the Public University and their future. We join our voice with our students and the entire university community, in the strike of February 8 and in the mobilizations throughout the country, demanding from the government: to respect article 16 of the Constitution and not to submit the establishment bill private universities. To really strengthen, in a substantial and measurable way, the university education in our country”, underline the university professors.
The students, moreover, are determined not to stop the mobilizations, as well as the sit-ins, despite the strong pressure exerted by the government against them, with the implementation of digital exams, or the invasion of the MAT in sit-ins.
In fact, ADEDY has announced a work stoppage for the same day, while POSDEP has also announced a strike, supporting the students’ demands.
Occupy at Panteion University against the bill for private universities
SYRIZA: The government wants to serve private interests
“The ND government wants to establish private universities, not – as it falsely claims – to strengthen the Public University, but because it seeks to degrade it and emigrate it to serve private interests”, emphasizes the head of the Education Department of SYRIZA-PS, Dionysis Kalamatianos, after Pierrakaki’s announcements.
The SYRIZA member of parliament notes that “it is obvious that the government is moving forward relentlessly in the implementation of its plan. He does not respect the Constitution. He does not understand either from the dynamic mobilizations of the students, nor from the strong protection front of the Public University that the academic community has formed”
“We will not allow Higher Education to transform into a business field, with the object of profit”, he emphasizes and speaks of “a climate of threats, authoritarianism, repression, arrests and violence against students, professors and teachers, who defend public education”.
He adds, in fact, that the government is “trying to deceive society, by giving the disputed draft law the title ‘Strengthening the Public University – Framework for the operation of non-profit branches of foreign universities'”, while underlining that in the draft law presented by the Minister of Education, apart from all of the others, “mergers and abolition of Departments that were established during the SYRIZA government are foreseen”.
“We do not accept the dissolution of public Higher Education. We do not accept a mutated academic education that will fuel social inequalities, setting tuition fees and the power of each and everyone’s pocket as prerequisites”, points out the head of the Education department of the main opposition party.
Waiting from PASOK
At the time these lines were written, there was no official reaction from PASOK to the presentation of the bill by Kyriakos Pierrakakis.
However, and despite the fact that Harilaou Trikoupi is not against the establishment of non-state universities, Nikos Androulakis, who had declared that PASOK will not stand in the way of the establishment of private universities, according to European and American standards, had declared that, in the event that the ND brings to the Parliament a framework that “will undermine the public and make degrees a trade, through a private and speculative market without criteria”, then it will vote against it.
It should be noted, in fact, that the responsible head of Education of PASOK-KINAL, Stefanos Parastatidis, had emphasized that “the demand for a major reform in the field of education cannot be the ‘overtaking’ of the constitutional provisions and the necessary and in-depth political and scientific dialogue, but the maximum possible political and social consensus and its defense by the political system, in a time horizon that will exceed that of one government term”.
KKE: The alleged consultation begins with an “own goal from the locker room”.
The KKE has severely criticized the government and the Minister of Education, on the occasion of the presentation of the bill, speaking of “a full-frontal attack on the educational rights of pupils and students, for degrading the value of degrees and for imposing new conditions for the commercialization of the educational process”.
Perissos, who supports the student protests, notes that “the just request ‘not to file’ must be heard even more loudly in universities, schools and colleges and throughout society as a whole” and adds that “it is confirmed once again that it is for a section hostile to the great social majority”.
“Literally, the government is starting the so-called consultation with an ‘own goal from the locker room’, already isolated and defeated, despite the substantial consensus it enjoys from SYRIZA and PASOK”, he characteristically emphasizes, noting that “now the student movement must grow”.
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