Education and Training Monitor 2024

1. Learning for sustainability

Greece incorporated learning for sustainability into the curricula in an interdisciplinary approach. This approach facilitates a holistic understanding of sustainability, connecting ecological, economic and social aspects. ‘Environment and education for sustainable development’¹ is part of the new curricula of pre-primary, primary and secondary schools², covering most components of sustainability competences (Bianci G., 2022 and Eurydice, 2024). Greece has a long tradition of addressing environmental issues in education and environmental centres established by law³ since the 1990s to support schools. Transversal skills and life science competences – creative thinking, climate change, environmental consciousness, circular economy, sustainable development – constitute the ‘Skills Labs’, an integral part of the innovative action in schools (European Commission, 2021a & 2022). The purpose is to make pupils better understand the world they live in, raise awareness of the problems associated with the environment and help them become active citizens. Also, there are cross-curricula objectives set, for example that students, as responsible citizens, should be aware of the consequences of human activities on the environment. Monitoring mechanisms are yet to be developed. Project-based learning for more than 3 months is possible, e.g. on the ‘Sustainable house’ or the ‘Sustainable school’ (Eurydice, 2024). In addition, Greece committed to launch in school year 2024/25, the ‘Active Citizen Actions’ programme from pre-primary schools to upper secondary schools. The programme will focus on engaging students with contemporary social issue.

A sustainability charter for higher education was established for the coming years. In 2021, the Hellenic Universities Rectors’ Conference of Greek higher education institutions drew up the sustainability charter for the universities⁴ for 2022-2030. Several university departments have established Bachelor’s and postgraduate programmes dedicated to sustainability education. Moreover, according to Law 4957/2022, each Greek higher education institution is required to establish a sustainable development plan. It outlines the practices they apply to protect the environment and strengthen the principles of sustainability in managing their infrastructure and investments. Furthermore, a sustainable development network is being formed by representatives of Greek higher education institutions, as an advisory body to the Rectors’ Synod, to promote scientific knowledge, research and education in sustainability issues.

Teachers receive support in teaching learning for sustainability. Greece provides continuous professional development for teachers in learning for sustainability for compulsory education levels. The ‘Skills labs’ programme also provides dedicated teacher training⁵ for primary and lower secondary education and offers educational material to teachers. In addition, the Institute for Educational Policy and the environment and sustainability education centres⁶ organise a wide range of seminars and support teachers in designing and implementing activities in schools (Eurydice, 2024).

Vocational education and training (VET) includes green skills training. The new national skills strategy of October 2023 (Cedefop, 2024) identifies intervention areas to improve workforce skills. They include cultivating environmental awareness and promoting responsible environmental behaviour, developing the circular economy and promoting energy saving activities, investing in professions and skills for the future, and strengthening innovation and resilience of companies by upgrading the population’s level of digital skills. On continuous VET, the Greek Public Employment Service has implemented ‘Skills upgrading and retraining programmes in high-demand sectors with emphasis on digital and green skills’ for both the unemployed and employees, supported under the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Challenges in implementing learning for sustainability are multifaceted. One of the main challenges is coordination and cooperation between interest groups as learning for sustainability is an interdisciplinary topic with multiple interest groups involved. In addition, providing adequate teacher training and professional development opportunities to effectively integrate sustainability education into teaching practices is challenging. Resource constraints, for example the lack of financial support or adequately trained teachers, could impede efforts to prioritise sustainability education. Lastly, the lack of a monitoring system, including systematic data collection on the implementation of learning for sustainability, hampers efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken and identify areas for improvement.

2. Early childhood education and care

The revised Barcelona target for participation in formal early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children under 3 in Greece is ambitious. Greece is invited to increase its participation rate by 13.3 percentage points (pps)⁷, to 42.8%⁸ in 2030 (from 29.5% on average in 2017-2021). In 2023, 29.5% of Greek children aged 0-2 attended ECEC⁹ (EU 37.4%). Participation is being subsidised by EU cohesion policy funds (European Commission, 2023).

Greece continues efforts to increase participation in ECEC. To respond to the low overall participation rate¹⁰ from age 3 to the starting age for compulsory primary education, measures have been taken to improve access to quality ECEC (European Commission, 2023). The introduction of mandatory pre-schooling from age 4 has been fully implemented since school year 2021/2022 (European Commission, 2022). Indicatively, in 2019¹¹ the rate stood at 68.8% vs the EU average of 92.9% and the EU-level target for 2030 of 96%¹². Monitoring is difficult as more recent data is lacking for Greece (Eurostat). Reform efforts continue, and the Ministry intentds to develop a common educational action programme to further increase participation in ECEC and improve mechanisms for the early detection of learning difficulties.

3. School education

The rate of early leavers from education and training (ELET) remains among the lowest in the EU. In 2023, only 3.7% of students aged 18-24 had left school completing only lower secondary school education or less (EU: 9.5%)¹³. With this the Greek ELET rate already surpassed the EU level target of less than 9%¹⁴. It also represents a substantial drop of 6.4 pps over the last decade. Geographical imbalances are prevalent as the rate in certain regions (such as Continental Greece, East Macedonia/Thrace, South Aegean) is up to three or four times higher than in the most populated region of Attica with the capital Athens. In cities, the rate of 2.5% is much lower than the EU level average of 8.6%. However, the overall drop is due to the significant decrease in rural areas by 11.5 pps since 2013 (in 2023: 6% vs EU level 9.5%).

Greece continues efforts to maintain the low rates in early school leaving. The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) supports the reduction of early school leaving, in particular among students from vulnerable social groups and students form other cultural or religious backgrounds than those prevalent in Greece. The fund also finances actions to improve learning outcomes with a focus on literacy and numeracy. In late 2023, the Ministry released new guidelines for the operation of centres¹⁵ and committees for inclusive education (Hellenic Republic, 2023) to better regulate and organise those supportive structures.

Figure 1: Early leavers from education and training (18-24 year olds) in 2013, 2023 (%)

Measures have been taken to strengthen special needs education. The centres for interdisciplinary assessment, counselling and support (ΚΕΔΑΣΥ) have been regulated by law¹⁶ since 2021, and they identify and assess disorders and learning difficulties among pupils aged 4 to 22. They also determine the type of individualised parallel support needed, its length on a case-by-case basis, and they support school units. The Ministry recently increased the number of special support staff and special needs teachers to support classroom teachers in all levels of education. However, successful integration remains challenging. According to the law¹⁷, the maximum number of pupils in a classroom is reduced only when there is a student with a disability or four students with special education needs¹⁸.

A large share of Greek students does not reach a minimum level of proficiency in mathematics, reading or science, while very few have advanced skills. In the 2022 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 47.2% of 15-year-olds underperformed in mathematics, 37.6% in reading and 37.3% in sciences (OECD, 2023a). These rates are among the highest underachievement rates in the EU (EU averages: 29.5% in maths, 26.2% in reading, 24.2% in science). At the same time, the share of top performing students is among the lowest in the EU in all three fields. Only 2% of young Greeks demonstrated advanced skills in mathematics (EU average 7.9%), 2% in reading (EU 6.5%) and 1.5% in sciences (EU 6.9%). In the context of the shrinking student population and substantial skills mismatches, these figures raise concerns for Greece’s future labour and skills supply to master the twin transition.

The decline in basic skills over the last decade reflects major equity and quality challenges for the education and training system. Underachievement in mathematics has grown over the entire socio-economic distribution since 2018. In 2022, 6 out of 10 students from disadvantaged backgrounds (64%) did not reach a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (vs 52.8% in 2018). The rate has also significantly increased for the top quartile of socio-economic distribution, more than the EU average (8.2 pps vs EU 2.2 pps), reaching 26.7%. This is nearly three times higher than the average rate in other EU countries (10.9%). The high share of low-achieving students among advantaged students, combined with the low share of top performing students, point to structural challenges to the quality and equity of education. These may reflect, for example, the underfunding of education policies, the impact of socio-economic factors on performance, the lack of school autonomy, challenges to the implementation of competence-based teaching methods and to the establishment of an evaluation culture. Equity, measured as the difference between socio-economically disadvantaged and advantaged students in underperformance in all three domains combined, is slightly above the EU average, with 13 pps difference (EU average 12.7 pps).

Figure 2: Underachievement in mathematics by students' socio-economic status, PISA 2012, 2018 and 2022 (%)

Student underachievement in basic skills has shown a negative trend since 2012 despite efforts to improve education outcomes. Greece is among the worst performers in basic skills with a sharper decline than the EU trends, despite a number of important reforms taken. This includes lowering the starting age for compulsory pre-school education at age 4, developing new curricula and textbooks with emphasis on key competences, introducing innovative actions in schools, adopting flexible education and training pathways or establishing new model and experimental schools to improve accessible education for all (European Commission, 2023). Educational reforms, including those on the acquisition of skills, need time to show tangible results (Sofianopoulou, 2024). However, the structural challenges mentioned earlier remain largely unaddressed and have a likely impact on educational outcomes. The extensive periods of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic may equally have resulted in learning losses, worsening Greece’s PISA results.

Challenges linked to school climate and discipline may also impact the results. Almost one in four students (23.5%) in Greece reported being the victim of bullying at least a few times per month, a phenomenon that affects students and schools irrespective of their socio-economic profile. Being frequently bullied was associated with a substantial score point difference in mathematics (21 points). In contrast, Greek students have a high sense of belonging at school – 78.2% of them feel they belong there, which is one of the highest figures in the EU. However, it does not seem to impact students’ achievement in mathematics.

Since the current school year, career guidance is being strengthened and expanded. In the frame of the Skills Labs, students in the 3rd year of lower secondary education benefit from career guidance. Since the current school year, the Ministry offers the possibility to receive career guidance by certified external organisations also to students of the 1st year of upper secondary schools in general education and vocational high schools (ΕΠΑΛ). Students can choose a career counsellor through a dedicated electronic application developed by the Ministry of Education.

4. Vocational education and training

Greece is introducing green specialities and thematic schools in VET. According to Law 4763/2020, which substantially reformed VET, four green subject areas were introduced in upper secondary VET schools (ΕΠΑΛ) in 2022: technician in organic farming, technician in renewable energy sources installation, technician in heating installations and in oil and natural gas technology, and landscape and environmental technician in technological application projects (Hellenic Republic, 2020). Following the provisions of the same law, three post-secondary vocational training institutes (ΔIEK) were transformed into thematic institutes in 2021 with a focus on natural environment and sustainability (Cedefop, 2024).

A new law aims to further reform VET in Greece. Law 5082/2024 aims to strengthen the integration of different VET structures and improve synergies within the national qualifications framework (NQF). The law provides for significant changes such as upgrading post-secondary vocational training institutes (IEK) and renaming them into higher vocational training schools (ΣAEK). The establishment of vocational education and training centres (KEEK) is foreseen, with the aim to a) strengthening the reach-out to society and b) connecting to the labour market taking into account the particularities of local societies and economies. The law also provides for the establishment of professional development and career offices (ΓΕΑΣ)) together with a relevant digital information portal. The programmes run by the model vocational high schools (ΠΕΠΑΛ) will be expanded to all vocational high schools (ΕΠΑΛ).

Greece increased the number of apprenticeship placements. In Greece, 45.3% of students in medium-level education attended programmes with a vocational orientation in 2022¹⁹. Only one third (35.4% in 2023) of recent VET graduates in Greece had experienced work-based learning²⁰ far below to the EU average of 64.5%. In school year 2023/2024, in the apprenticeship scheme offered at level 5 of the European Qualifications Framework (post-secondary year – apprenticeship class), a total of 9 550 apprenticeship placements were made available. This corresponds to a significant increase of 45.5% in apprenticeship placements compared to the previous school year. This trend is expected to continue for the years to come.

The ESF+ supports VET in Greece. Under the operational programme ‘Human Resources and Social Cohesion’ of the cohesion policy funds, the ESF+ supports measures on VET governance. They include the establishment of a project management unit dedicated to supporting the governance of the strategic plan for VET, lifelong learning, and youth. In addition, it encompasses the development of a certification system for career and professional guidance counsellors and an observatory to track the transition of VET graduates into the labour market. This focuses on NQF levels 3 and 5 and contains actions geared to monitoring progress, analysing the role of certification, and mapping educational and professional pathways. Vocational training initiatives are also covered by the ESF+, such as the action on vocational training for students at public schools of higher vocational training that focuses on financing theoretical and laboratory-based training, as well as practical training for new students.

Efforts were made to increase the labour market relevance of skills acquisition supported by the EU Technical Support Instrument. Recent VET graduates in Greece have a relatively low employment rate (67.4% in 2023, compared to the EU average of 81.0%)²¹. The objective of a relevant project by the Technical Support Instrument which goes beyond VET, is to support the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sport, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security as well as the Public Employment Service (ΔΥΠΑ) in developing a comprehensive approach to skills acquisition from school to adult learning to increase their labour market relevance. The expected results are a) the establishment of a skills and competences framework for primary and secondary education; b) the development of a methodology for evidence-based profiling of jobseekers and feedback mechanisms for upskilling and reskilling programmes; and c) the development of a performance-based evaluation framework for relevant non-formal learning providers.

5. Higher education

Tertiary educational attainment is close to the EU-level target for 2030. In 2023, 44.5% of Greeks aged 25-34 held a tertiary education degree, above the EU average of 43.1%. This constitutes a significant increase of 7.3 pps over the last decade (vs an average EU increase of 8 pps) and underlines the fact that Greek society places great value on higher education. Greece also had one of the highest shares of female tertiary education graduates in STEM in 2022²², at 40.7%²³ (Eurostat, 2024). In 2023, there was a gender gap in educational attainment of 17 pps in favour of women. To achieve a better gender balance, Greece launched a major policy initiative in 2023 related to gender equity in higher education (European Commission, 2023). In addition, a new governance model is being introduced in higher education (European Commission, 2023). The share of international students remained stable between 2019 and 2021, making up 3% of all tertiary students (OECD, 2023d).

Graduate mobility is highly imbalanced. Greece is among the highest net sending countries of graduates studying abroad, in the EU. In 2022, the relation between the number of graduates from other EU countries coming to Greece to study to the number of students that Greece sends abroad to graduate in another EU country was -78%²⁴ (in favour of outward mobility)²⁵. In 2022, 12% of Greek students studied abroad (vs EU 10.9% and EU-level target 23%)²⁶ – 10.5% to complete a degree abroad, 1.5% for time-limited credit mobility. In contrast, the inward degree mobility rate in 2022 was low at 1.8% vs 8.7%. Almost all credit mobile graduates from Greece went abroad in 2022 under EU programmes (98.2% vs EU 54.6%)²⁷. In the academic year 2022/2023, 20% of Erasmus+ students should have been students with fewer opportunities according to guidelines provided by the Ministry specifying incentives and top-level recommendations.

From academic year 2025/2026, Greece starts allowing non-state universities to be established²⁸, while introducing regulations to strengthen public universities. Greece allows overseas universities to set up branches in Greece. The branches would charge fees but operate under a non-profit structure. Foundation criteria for these establishments determine for example a minimum number of departments and a minimum foundation cost, supervised by the National Authority for Higher Education. A precondition for students to enrol is that they should have reached the minimum entry level in the national examinations that give access to higher education or hold an International Baccalaureate or school graduation certificate from another country that is equivalent to that of Greece.

6. Adult learning

Participation in adult learning decreased compared to previous years. In 2022, adult participation in education and training in Greece stood at 15.1%, lower than in 2016 (16%) and much lower than the EU average of 39.5%²⁹. There are significant differences in adult learning participation³⁰ based on the level of education, gender, age, labour status and place of residence (urban vs rural areas).

Greece has set an ambitious target for adults in training every year. The target aims for 40% of adults to participate in training every year by 2030, which is more than double the 2022 rate of 15.1%. The 2022-24 strategic plan for vocational education, training, lifelong learning and youth (Cedefop and Refernet, 2023), based on Law 4763/2020, acknowledges the challenge to increase adult participation rates, particularly among individuals with low qualifications. It also acknowledges the need to strengthen the quality of lifelong learning programmes for adults in Greece.

The EU cohesion policy funds support adult learning. The current Partnership Agreement between the Commission and Greece under the funds for the programming period 2021-2027 (European Commission, 2021b) reflects the new priorities of the Commission for Greece in the coming years. Relevant measures in the ‘Human Resources and Social Cohesion’ programme supported by the ESF+ include inclusive education actions to continue and expand second chance schools which have been established in 2024³¹, measures to support work-based learning with internships and apprenticeship interventions³² and initiatives to empower 25 000 unemployed young people and improve the skills of workers across various sectors with training and certification opportunities, facilitated by professional and sectoral bodies. The ESF+ also supports measures related to adult learning under the 13 regional operational programmes for Greece. In particular, the long-term unemployed are supported through targeted services and the acquisition of new skills for workers in dynamic or restructuring sectors. Under the Just Transition Fund programme, integrated interventions are provided for a just transition in the post-lignite period, including targeted training for the unemployed and former workers in enterprises and areas mostly affected by delignification. This is combined with needs diagnostics, vocational counselling and social empowerment for participants.