OLME
GREEK FEDERATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION STATE SCHOOL TEACHERS
2, Kornarou & Ermou Str.
Tel: 0030 210 3230073-3221255
Fax: 0030 210 3311338-3227382
E-mail: olme@otenet.gr
To : FENPROF, FNE, SINDEP.
Athens, 21 June 2013
Solidarity with teachers in Portugal
Dear Colleagues,
OLME wishes to express solidarity with teachers in Portugal and calls on the Portuguese government to withdraw its latest proposal, which seeks to dismiss thousands of teachers without any support 18 months after losing their job.
The provision of education in Portugal is in peril as funding is cut and schools are merged or closed down. The recent measures proposed by the government are more severe than ever before. Similar measures are being implemented in Greece with a very negative impact on education and on the teaching profession. Greek teachers are fighting and they will not accept such a regression either. OLME deplores these measures and calls for an immediate investment in the education sector.
It is unacceptable that teaching hours are envisioned to increase to 40 per week while teachers’ salaries are cut. The troika of international lenders – the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – has called for cuts which will affect the functioning of schools, the quality of education and the social support to students and their families.
Severe cuts in the education budget are envisioned in the budgetary amendment expected to come into force in the second half of 2013. As a result, there will be further school mergers, increased class sizes, greater segregation of students with special needs, less social support to families from poorer backgrounds and dismissals of other education employees. Cuts in the education budget will have adverse social effects and jeopardize the future of Portugal. OLME calls on the Portuguese government to ensure free and equal access to high quality public education.
OLME supports all who defend quality public education in Portugal and calls on the Portuguese government to invest in education and to immediately reverse unjust austerity measures.
For the E. B. of OLME
The President Secretary General
Nikos Papachristos Themis Kotsifakis