Now our announcement in English! Please share! Thank you! Announcement In relation to the draft law of the Ministry of Education, which is planning to eliminate several specialties in vocational education including the specialty of Goldsmiths and on behalf of all Goldsmith’s Vocational Schools in Greece we protest against the draft law and request its withdrawal In general, we consider unacceptable the practice of elimination as the solution of any problems because not only does it offer no solution but creates even more serious deficiencies and even more problems. In particular: • referring to the vocational education: We consider that vocational education is so important that -instead of eliminating specialties- there should be an equally distributing system among vocational and general education. Eliminating, not only drives a large group of students in professional deadlocks, it also condemns several professions to decline and –in time- vanish (especially when there is no similar department in Higher Education System. Vocational education currently produces a large amount of qualified graduates who are mainly self-employed, without burdening unemployment numbers (on the contrary it is a significant working outlet). It provides education and employment opportunities in a wide variety of population groups, both young and older, since the minimum requirement for attendance is the proof of A grade of higher Secondary School and not high school diploma (as in IEK) or tests (such as higher education). Thus it guarantees the democratic public good of education and training for work. It should be mentioned that this action of the elimination is also threatening at this time the future of all students already studying in these specialties (and possibly the professional consolidation of graduates already?) • referring to the specialty of Goldsmiths: The profession of Goldsmith has deep roots in centuries of cultural history and the productive fabric of the country (from antiquity to the present). Survived not only vigorously all the centuries of our history, but in many cases produced development and culture even in difficult times. In modern Greece thread of tradition and techniques now only survives through vocational schools (whose elimination is planned) of which many important and distinguished craftsmen and artists have graduated. It is also historical, archaeological and cultural product, with extensions to the so called "heavy" tourism industry. In our view it is also exportable product, according to our observations, even at an educational level. For all these theories, then, this specialty must at all costs be maintained, since we are talking about a very small number of schools across Greece for which the operating costs are rather reduced due to the small number of employees (according to the lists announced : 16 people). In addition, so far a large amount of money has been spent for equipment and building infrastructure that will all go to waste. Furthermore, graduates of these schools do not look at some recruiting employment, they mainly develop self-employed business in Greece and abroad. Moreover, the industry Goldsmith does not exist in higher education, public IEK specialty is ridiculously few and exclude groups of people without a high school diploma, while private IEK is very costly. In conclusion, do we wish for such an important industry to be practiced almost exclusively by private educational systems or should there be portion of the industry’s development to public vocational education as well? Signed by teachers Schools of : • EPAS Athens / Goldsmith • EPAS Katerini / Goldsmith • EPAS Korydallou / Goldsmith • EPAS Larissa / Goldsmith • EPAS New Smyrna / Goldsmith • EPAS Peristeri / Goldsmith • EPAS Stemnitsa / Goldsmith • EPAS Halandriou / Goldsmith
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 17:37:49 +0000