Greek universities are heading down the road of insignificance and mediocrity. They also reproduce insignificance and mediocrity. None is included among the world's top three hundred. And yet they could be at the forefront, since there is remarkable human potential.

Of course, there are some university departments that stand out, but they are very few. There are also some university professors who stand out. The same applies to students. The excellent ones distinguish themselves. And when they graduate, they leave for the good universities of America.

Sakis Moumtzis, a former leftist, writes about every excellent student who leaves Greece: "What should he stay in Greece for? To attend classes at rag universities, with instructors who stand in solidarity with thugs and occupiers? To remain in a country where excellence is a stigma? In a country of absolute leveling downward? In a country where they do not want to strive to reach the best, but struggle to bring the best down to their own level?". We fully agree and endorse this.

Syriza and Mr. Tsipras see only the Greek scientists who excel on a global scale. And they repeatedly refer to the distinction of Greek universities. But the reality is different. The vast majority of university schools/departments offer low to mediocre education.

Also, the vast majority of students graduate with deficient and useless knowledge. And many students, because they are semi-literate, cannot graduate from university. These obvious truths seem impossible for the Left to understand. And the strange thing is that it calls all this decline a "progressive achievement".

There are three deadly sins of the Left that keep education underdeveloped. And they are ongoing crimes. Specifically:

First, occupations. Occupations, disruption of classes, destruction of laboratories and infrastructure, etc., have been a common phenomenon for forty years. At the center of all this are the far-left factions, which Syriza indulges. Recently, they committed yet another act of vandalism at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Second, the rejection of evaluation and meritocracy. For more than forty years the Left has fought against evaluation at all levels of education. The result is that at every level of education (primary school, middle school, high school, university), the vast majority of graduates are illiterate or semi-literate. Parents and Greek society know this too, but remain silent, perhaps out of complicity.

Third, populism. Populism dominates every field. And education too. Before the 2019 elections, Syriza, for example: a) founded thirty-seven (37) new university departments for clientelist reasons, since all were unnecessary, b) Mr. Tsipras, following the example of Andreas Papandreou, whom he tries to imitate but cannot, announced the abolition of the nationwide exams. And the unforgettable part: Shortly afterward, the responsible education minister stated: "We still do not know how this will happen."

The quality of the educational system is therefore not judged by the 5% of graduates who are excellent and excel in Greece and abroad. It is judged by the quality of the remaining 95%. And the overwhelming majority of that 95% graduate semi-literate. And for this situation, the Left is primarily responsible.

But the government is also responsible, because it does not promote reform proposals at zero cost, such as: school choice for students in primary school, middle school, and high school. This would separate the wheat from the chaff. Good schools would fill up with students and useless ones would empty out. Then teachers would either improve in order to have students or be dismissed.

Could it be that the government does not dare such a reform because it fears the Left, which would climb onto the rooftops?

Of course, when a people reaches the point of electing an occupier as prime minister, everything else is unnecessary. Let us understand this: the Left reacts to every reform that improves education. It is interested only in the disintegration of education.

Paulos Marantos

marantosp@gmail.com