Conventional classroom education in Greece is changing drastically with the help of digital means, said Education, Religions & Sports Minister Sofia Zacharaki at an event at the Athens Conservatory on “The Digital School, knowledge becoming experience with equal opportunities for all” on Wednesday.
Zacharaki spoke of a start with interactive blackboards, having provided 36,264 interactive programs to 6,899 elementary and high schools, and furnishing 11,146 schools with 117,121 robotics sets, starting from kindergarten through to high school, the sets totaling 29.9 million euros.
“Conventional study programs are also transforming, changing into an open code with interactive digital environment, digital technologies in the learning process, with open educational sources,” she said.
The minister detailed the changes in education through technology, and especially on the 13 Innovation Centers that will be opened, one in every Greek region. The 5-million-euro project will include laboratories for Extended Reality, Artificial Intelligence, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), robotics, and space for construction, meetings, and presentations, she said. These will serve all ages and also serve to train educators and officials of the centers. The first phase will begin in December.
Minister Papathanasis
A total of 155,000 general and special education teachers will be trained in new pedagogical and technological skills, interactively, robotics & STEM, digital objects. “The first phase has already begun,” Zacharaki noted, adding, “No project would have had value if it were not accessible to all. The Recovery Fund provides tools for students with impairments and special educational needs. It is an amount that exceeded 10 million euros.”
Zacharaki was introduced by Alternate National Economy & Finance Minister Nikos Papathanasis, who said that the event “truly reflects what the Recovery Fund is doing in our country. There is always talk of the Recovery Fund not touching the many, but only the few. Here then is the unmistakable proof that it touches citizens’ everyday lives.”
Overall, Papathanassis noted, 542 million euros from the Recovery Fund is used for the Digital Frontistirio, providing free lessons to 12th-grade students in preparation for university examinations. He also noted funding for joint graduate degrees, and 110 million euros allocated to equipment for career and trade high schools and colleges.
