By decision of the Council of Ministers, the number of assistants will increase from the new school year with 242 additional positions in Primary and 37 in Secondary Education, said the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Athina Michailidou, noting that as part of the upgrade of special education, the assistants will they must undergo mandatory training.
In statements to the journalists at the Presidential Palace after the Cabinet meeting, the Minister stated that the goal is to start the school year smoothly without the issues that existed in the last decade and to make a very good forecast and plan. "And that's what we managed to do this year so that during the year we can also cover additional needs," he said.
He said that the process starts immediately from the beginning of September and that the goal was this, noting that all the previous period all the provincial committees were called to give their information very early so that we can today have this decision that concerns the whole of the next school year.
In response to a question, he said that 933 are the attendants for Primary Education, which covers kindergartens, primary and special schools, and 363 in Secondary Education. With the decision of the Council of Ministers, he said, the number rises by 242 additional positions in Primary and 37 in Secondary Education.
He noted that the increase is also due to the timely evaluation by the Committees and the timely notification of the Ministry about these needs, but mainly to the increase in incidents in schools, the expansion of pre-school education, the increase of departments in special units and also in special schools .
Referring to the number of escorts, she said the number in itself is not news, but noted that the news for us and the change we have this year is that in the context of the modernization and upgrading of special training, these escorts will have to go through mandatory training that it will help them immensely in their role and important duties.
Special education and the transition to unified education is one of the important priorities of the Government, said the Minister and reminded that this year there was a dialogue with all partners, recording their opinions and suggestions on the issues of special education and how we can move to uniform education while a series of measures was promoted from this year.
The next year, he said, will be very critical because we are expected to enter into issues of legislation and issues of speeding up procedures from the moment a child is identified to face challenges of special education, unified education, until the moment he leaves the education system.
Mrs. Michailidou added that the improvement of the procedures achieved since this year is very important. It is also very important, he said, to differentiate teaching, for which we have worked very intensively in recent months, to support and empower our teachers to be able to have in their classes children with various challenges and different needs.
For this purpose, the Minister noted, digital material has been posted in collaboration with Greece, which teachers are invited to make use of. This will continue, he said, since from the next school year, very focused teachers, depending on the children they have in their classes, will also be able to attend specialized training.
Mrs. Michailidou mentioned that early prediction in this matter is very important for us, for this, as she said, we also included tools from preschool education.
"It is important for us that special education, the road to unified education continue seamlessly with cooperation and dialogue to see tangible results to help children and their parents who are already facing these challenges to play their role in our education system by satisfying, cultivating their talents, their inclinations to the maximum extent they can", he emphasized.
Source: KYPE