Challenging ministerial decision shortly before parliament closes for Easter
A “group fire” once morest Education Minister Nikis Kerameos was caused by her decision to file an amendment literally at the last moment – early on Tuesday (01.30) – regarding the rector’s elections and just 24 hours before Parliament closed for Easter. A move that, if nothing else, shows panic, if not sloppiness, in the face of developments that Mrs. Kerameos herself caused, since, following the methods for selecting “mothers” through an interview for the positions of school principals, she is now intervening for the change in the election of the Management Boards of the HEIs.
A month ago, a relevant amendment was passed, which was supposed to solve the issue. Roughly, at the last moment, before the end of the government’s term, the political leadership of the Ministry of Health brings a new amendment, in order to deal with the chaos it caused for a law that is already being examined for its constitutionality by the Council of State.
The amendment comes to correct the error it committed, not providing a way out in cases of a tie between the 6 internal members of the councils when they vote for the selection of the 5 external members, resulting in a deadlock in three university institutions (Macedonia, Aegean and Thessaly ), in which the internal members of the Management Boards for months have not been able to elect the external members, the process was declared barren and had to be done once more.
The Head of Education and Member of Parliament for Athens 1 of SYRIZA-P.S. Nikos Filis with his statement underscores “the legislative indifference of Mrs. Kerameos and the government of the ND, which with this (n)amendment, in an arbitrary and probably unconstitutional way, essentially modifies its law at its core and transfers finally the competence for the election of the external members in the… Senate. That is, in a body indirectly appointed and not directly elected by the university students”, requesting the withdrawal of the “shame” amendment, as he typically states.
At the same time, the Head of Education of PASOK-KIN.AL. Hara Kefalidou, referring to the new amendment, talks regarding “the disappointing picture of the successive amendments on the issue of university administration”, underlining the “carelessness of the Kerameos legislation in Higher Education”, which leads the universities to lack of governance, “while coming to added to their accumulated problems.”
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