GREECE - CRITICS

EPAL NAFPAKTOU is a vocational school with a long tradition in Vocational Education (the school was founded in 1967). It provides specialized training in the field of services: ICTs, Health, Food Technology, Economics and Management, Tourism, Mechanical Engineering, Refrigeration Systems, Central Heating Systems – Technology of Petroleum and Natural Gas,  Electrical Engineering, Electronics.

Our college educates around 300 students aged 15+ , from both rural and urban environments taught by 50 teachers who show an increased interest for continuous improvement of  the educational process offered both related to general and vocational field.

In 2019 The New beginning at EPAL initiative was introduced in selected vocational schools in Greece. Our school was in the initial schools to be implemented. Since it is designed to upgrade the role and image of VET in Greece, it sets our students’ at the epicentre of action. Via this program, implemented in our school we try to enhance the key competences of learners through psychosocial and cognitive support. Critical thinking is one of the pylons set via this initiative. Educators, supported by a psychologist appointed in our school , work via class sessions to promote basic principles by using amternative methods such as role plays, problem solving techniques etc.

Being a school gives us the huge opportunity of having everyday contact with youth , exploring their needs and interests from first hand and use their background knowledge as base to build new ones. Our students usually come from underpriviledged environment ( socially, economically, psychologically) and this makes them the perfect canva for further evolvement. Of course it is an everyday challenge to start from scratch in some cases as there are no basic skills to step on and start cultivating critical thinking but that is also a motive to use alternative ways to reach the final goal.

By joining this partnership EPAL NAFPAKTOU aims at working with partner organisations far more experienced, get into touch with good practices and methods used in other countries and environments and thus use this useful knowledge to our youth benefit. EPAL Nafpaktou is directly interested in offering, apart from basic and professional knowledge, some soft skills for the future and  adult life, as well. Unfortunately our students are either unaware of their social rights and duties, or stand uninterested in front of basic questions and challenges of school , social, political life. Some of them have bigger problems to solve such as survivor but still critical thinking has a lot to offer even in the part of earning one’s living even if it is in longterms.

2 years ago  there was a discussion for the upgrade of the public school and the 6 basic reform packages that it includes were analyzed in the Parliament.

Referring to the bill, the Minister of Education and Religions, Niki Kerameos stressed: "We change programs, institute new procedures, gradually differentiate the educational standards, in order to provide our students with more and better supplies for the present and the future." As the Minister underlined: "By investing in today's modern school, we provide our children with more and better supplies for tomorrow. And together we are building a society that is more dynamic, more inclusive, with equal opportunities and without exclusions. "Because education is the most important mechanism of social mobility."

Describing some of the school's pathogenesis, such as poor performance at the PISA International Competition and school bullying, he emphasized the need for rapid change, with planning and determination: educational example. To build the school of critical thinking, the school of vigilance. The school of continuous self-improvement. The school that teaches knowledge, at the same time ethics, the school that shapes free and responsible citizens at the same time ".