Dear parents, teachers, students,
We wish you a good school year with strength and optimism, with collective struggle for the dreams and needs of the people’s family for a decent life and for a modern and free school, which will truly teach and educate all children equally.
But to satisfy a fundamental social right such as education, which is so closely linked to the future of every child and of society as a whole, it is not enough to wish for it, but we need to organise and fight for it from today!
We will not tolerate everything being subordinated to the pursuit of profit and everything being subjected to the logic of cost-benefit. Struggle and demand is a one-way street for the people!
It cannot be a normality:
Fires burning down forests and people’s property, leaving behind dead people, at the same time that industries, renewable energy plants and hotel complexes spring up in their place, taking advantage of the “opportunity” for profitable activity on the burnt land. The responsibilities of the state, which has left the people and the natural environment unprotected, are criminal.
Flooding of areas and schools every three and a half years, because according to the EU guidelines, flood control projects in poor-people areas are not considered eligible.
Travel by a popular means of transport such as trains is considered a risk to life, because no government in the last 30 years has taken care to install and maintain modern safety systems, since they are counted as a cost.
Workers working either 10-hour or flexible hours, with no health and safety conditions, often with starvation wages.
The inflation, and the energy poverty to which the people have been condemned because of the energy exchange. How can a newly appointed cope when he has to pay more than half his salary just for the rent?
The images of teachers sleeping in camping sites or cars because they cannot find a place to stay at their place of work. A tragic situation which, together with the very expensive rents, is yet another anti-popular ‘achievement’ of tourism development.
The public health system is ‘seriously ill’, with patients dying in cars for lack of ambulances and health workers being forced to move now and then to fill the large gaps, at the same time as private health investors are having a party of profits.
Dragging the people into the maelstrom and devastation of war for the rivalries and interests of big business groups. And even if they escape from the firing line, they are being driven out of their homes by land and by sea, which for many is becoming a watery grave.
This is the barbarity of the system we live in! So no trust in the state that is executive and efficient when it comes to the interests of the few exploiters and inefficient when it comes to the needs of the people!
No wonder then that in such a system the modern educational rights of students are not covered. The unacceptable situation is well known, with hundreds of schools in ruins, without seismic protection and with a poor and dangerous infrastructure, while students are crammed into classes of up to 28 (a situation that is intensified by the policy of mergers of classrooms). At the same time, the commercialisation of education is flourishing and the financial burden of running a public school is increasingly being passed on to parents, due to underfunding by the state.
The lofty words about “upgrading educational work” and “improving schools”, “digital transformation”, are nothing more than hollow expressions that only aim to hide the real situation that prevails and the deeper objectives. They want a categorised school that seeks resources from sponsors and parents, that does not offer comprehensive knowledge but fragmentary ephemeral skills, based on the needs of the capitalist market.
No tolerance for policies that crush our lives and the educational rights of our children! No tolerance to the policy of persecution and targeting of teachers fighting against the categorisation of schools.
We are taking the situation into our own hands! We organize the struggle for a school that meets modern needs!
To fill immediately with permanent recruitments, all the vacancies in general – special teachers and other staff (e.g. cleaning) in the schools. Permanent employment of substitutes.
Work and life with rights. 20% increases in teachers’ salaries.
15 pupils per class. Open from the first day of school. No to the new wave of school mergers. Stop the mergers now.
Coverage of teachers’ housing under the responsibility of the state for those who are forced to rent out of permanent housing, utilization of all available infrastructure for housing. Generous state funding so that municipalities can implement the possibility of providing free food (e.g. in military and student clubs) and housing to all teachers. 50% discount on all public transport. + housing allowance.
Generous state funding for schools to cover all school needs. Cancellation of electricity and utility debts. Provision of tax-free oil and gas. No financial burden on parents for running schools.
Abolition of VAT on all school supplies. Imposition of a cap on prices.
Free lunch and brunch to all children. Ensure free transport of pupils to school under the responsibility of the Districts from the first day of classes.
Modern and safe schools. Immediate substantive and thorough earthquake inspection of all school buildings. Repair and maintenance of schools since students are at risk not only from earthquakes during school hours but also on a daily basis from poorly maintained materials (plasters, lighting materials, doors, glazing, etc.). Immediate issuance of certificates of suitability, fire safety and inspections of electrical equipment.
No categorisation of schools through anti-educational assessment. No to schools of class divisions and ephemeral skills. Hands off the teachers. Stop persecution and disciplinary action.
Money for education, not for NATO slaughterhouses. No involvement of Greece in the war.
