As he typically states in “through this”, “we cannot stand any more lost opportunities as a country. And this must be, perhaps, the most important lesson of the 50 years of post-colonialism. A mature and stable European democracy of the 21st century cannot sleep with the ghosts of the left and junta of the 20th century.”
In detail, “the discussion that took place last week in the competent committee of the Parliament on non-state – non-profit universities and the strengthening of the public university was extremely revealing. Mainly because it highlighted once again that, in a world and an educational reality that has already changed rapidly, PASOK and SYRIZA insist on acting as “lovers of immobility”. Either for the sake of a so-called “structural opposition” or for reasons of ideology, which ultimately, however, ignores the real problems and demands of society”.
In the end, he continues, “what does reality tell us today?”, he wonders and answers: “The first and basic thing is that modern societies are knowledge societies and economies. Thanks to knowledge they progress and knowledge is not a state monopoly anywhere in the rest of the western world. Except for Greece (and maybe North Korea).
The second is that there are no educational borders. Precisely because there is a high demand for knowledge that is not met – and cannot be met by state universities alone – 40,000 young Greek men and women turn to universities abroad and 32,000 to private colleges within borders. The same people who hypocritically criticize the brain drain, stubbornly refuse to open the educational gates in order to keep valuable human capital in our country.
The third point is that the constitutional and political “incorrectness” of Article 16 has already been overcome by EU law, European jurisprudence and partially also the jurisprudence of the Greek courts. We have been obliged by a series of court decisions to allow, as a member of the EU, the operation of private colleges in our country, which give equal professional rights to public universities. But not equal academic rights.
At the same time, as a consequence of the previous one, the fourth point is that because of our obsession with doing the ostrich, we have abrogated the self-evident right and obligation that we have as a state to exercise strict supervisory control over all sorts of colleges. As a result, there is a de facto commercialized and completely unregulated field of private higher education, which the domestic left and center-left pretend not to see. But neither did they attempt to regulate when they could, even though they claim to be supporters of the public university.
The fifth and final point against those who choose a static interpretation of the Constitution – while leading constitutionalists who are not even close to the government have already given adequate answers on this – is that Greece has no more time to waste. This reform should have already happened almost 20 years ago when a historic opportunity for a constitutional review of Article 16 was lost by the ND government, due to the unjustified retreat of PASOK – despite the official position of its then President in favor of non-state universities”.
In the meantime, adds the Minister of State, “other countries, such as Cyprus, did not miss this opportunity and in the meantime created their own non-state higher education systems that attract thousands of Greek students and hundreds of Greek academics.
So, let’s finally stop the moral panic of the opposition and let’s face reality. We cannot afford any more lost opportunities as a country. And this must be, perhaps, the most important lesson of the 50 years of post-colonialism. A mature and stable European democracy of the 21st century cannot sleep with the ghosts of the left and the junta of the 20th century”, concludes ‘A. Schertz.
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