ABTTF President: „Unfortunately, our country Greece is among the countries that do not prioritize education in the distribution of public resources. Naturally, this situation affects efforts to improve school infrastructure and provide teachers with better working conditions. As the Turkish community in Western Thrace, in addition to these general problems in educatin in our country, we are also contending with official measures aimed at the step-by-step and systematic dismantling of our educational autonomy which is guaranteed by treaties.“
According to the data released by the Eurostat, the official statistical office of the European Union (EU), Greece ranks near the bottom in the EU in terms of public spending on education, alongside Romania and Malta.
According to the latest figures of Eurostat, the public expenditure on education in Greece amounts to 3.3% of GDP, significantly below the EU average of 4.7%.
The highest levels of public education expenditure as a share of GDP were recorded in Sweden, where spending reached 6.8%, followed by Finland (6.3%) and Belgium (6.2%). At the other end of the ranking, Romania recorded the lowest share at 3.0%, followed by Greece (3.3%) and Malta (3.4%).
„Eurostat’s data are important for showing the differing levels of priority given to education by the EU member states. Unfortunately, our country Greece is among the countries that do not prioritize education in the distribution of public resources. Naturally, this situation affects efforts to improve school infrastructure and provide teachers with better working conditions. As the Turkish community in Western Thrace, in addition to these general problems in education in our country, we are also contending with official measures aimed at the step-by-step and systematic dismantling of our educational autonomy which is guaranteed by treaties. Our country, which closes our autonomous primary schools one by one each year, aims to completely eliminate our educational autonomy“, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
