“The main capital of Greece is its human capital, our minds; not even tourism”, stated Marietta Giannakou during the highly attended lecture that took place on March 28 at the Institute of Diplomacy and Global Affairs.
The former Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs discussed the need for the modernization of education with two personalities who also have extensive experience in the field of education, Anna Diamantopoulou and Thanos Veremis. Despite their different political and professional background, the three of them agreed that Greek education is in need of a substantive and lasting reformation.
Marietta Giannakou and Anna Diamantopoulou both underlined the fact that Greece is the only country that hasn’t implemented the Bologna Process reforms towards modernization and Europeanization of the education. While M. Giannakou stressed out the importance of setting internationalization of the universities as a primary target, A. Diamantopoulou talked about the unsurpassed conflicts and the political cost of a deep reformation that needs 10-15 years to show its beneficial results. Professor T. Veremis highlighted the internal need of the academic community for a change and discussed evaluation and accreditation of our universities as a precondition for the institutions to be competitive.
From the emerging challenges of research and innovation to the deep dogmatism that scourges the country the discussion addressed various educational issues, all leading to a single conclusion: Education reformation in Greece is a prerequisite for social and economic development that will put the country back on the map.
