Main opposition New Democracy (ND) president Kyriakos Mitsotakis stepped up his emphasize on education issues over the week, as the center-right party he leads apparently considers ruling SYRIZA party as particularly vulnerable on the specific subject.
He again said ND will allow the establishment of non-state universities in the country and completely abolish a unique "asylum" status granted to public university campuses in Greece. The first development, however, will entail a constitutional revision of article 16, which enshrines the state's monopoly in the higher education sector.
Mitsotakis called education a "social elevator", allowing children from different social and economic backgrounds to acquire equal opportunities and advantages for their future, speaking at an event to unveil his party's platform for the sector.
In again taking aim at the leftist-rightist coalition government, especially the dominant party, hard left SYRIZA, Mitsotakis referred to an "educational regression", with the abolition of magnet schools, last-place EU rankings for Greek secondary schools and a petty-partisan attitude in downgrading tertiary technologica institutes.
