Heeding a call on Facebook for a ‘Panhellenic Occupation’, students across the country are participating in sits-in at schools to protest against secondary education reform

Hundreds of secondary schools across the country are under occupation by students who have rallied under a call posted on Facebook for sit-ins in protest against education reforms.

The “Panhellenic Occupation, No to the new System’ was posted on Sunday inviting almost 200,000 students to participate.

Students are protesting against the changes enshrined in the ‘New Lyceum’ bill which has introduced a new exam system, changes to the curriculum -the ‘subject bank’-, the merging of schools, and shortages in funds and teachers.

Education Minister Andreas Loverdos told parliament on Tuesday that 500 schools were under occupation and that there will be a ‘major problem’ in covering missed school hours.  

“The situation cannot remain this way…and we all have to understand the problems this creates for the schooling community.”

He said school sit-ins are a common occurrence in the runup to November 17 (the annual anniversary of the university student uprising against Greece’s military junta in 1973) but stressed that if the protests continue students will miss almost half the school year.

“What will happen with the curriculum… how will the lost ground be covered?” he asked and warned “there is a presidential decree that regulates these matters,” referring to a circular introduced last year, which says that school hours lost due to sit-ins – that last longer than three days – will be made up for on the weekends and the holiday season.

The students, for their part, appear adamant and determined to see their protest through until their demands are met and the government backs down from its reforms.

“They [the students] are at last sending a message that no one else could send. They showed that they are united. They want a better future and they are ready to make the sacrifices to pursue it…..They decided that they have to do something”, said a letter posted on Neolaia.gr (link in Greek) by Christos Kotzambasis, a high school student at the 2nd Lyceum of Xanthi in northern Greece and administrator of the Facebook page No, to the new Lyceum (link in Greek) which monitors and provides updates about the sit-ins.

Secondary schools under student occupation throughout the country, include the regions of Attica, Thessaloniki, Epirus in northern Greece, Tripoli in the Peloponnese, Chania and Iraklion on the island of Crete, and western Greece, while student rallies have been organised via Facebook under the banner. “Spread the word, we all can, we can’t let them play with our future, and turn us into guinea pigs and memorising machines.”

More specifically, roughly 100 secondary schools in Attica alone are under occupation, and students held a demonstration in central Athens yesterday and marched to parliament.

Students are posting messages on facebook with lists of schools participating in the sit-in and texts explaining their positions.

School sit-ins in Greece have a long history stretching back to the beginning of the post-dictatorship era in the mid 70s.

Last autumn, the country was hit by another wave of student sit-ins in roughly 700 schools, with demonstrations and assemblies to protest against book shortages and a lack of teachers.

Update
A prosecutor in Lamia, central Greece, ordered last night, the arrest of nine students and eight of their guardians involved in a sit-in at one of the town's high schools. The arrest came after a parent of a student filed a lawsuit against those occupying the school.