Athens School Students’ Coordinating Committee:"School Art Festival” Draws Large Turnout

The festival took place on Sunday, 8 February, and became a vibrant meeting point where creativity met the concerns, needs and demands of the student youth. It sent a clear message: students will not come to terms with an exam-centred and suffocating school, but are fighting for a school that educates, inspires and nurtures their all-round development. The student bands that took part, through their music and artistic creation, gave voice to the slogan: “We want a creative school, not an exam centre.”

Students spoke about the serious shortcomings in schools—lack of subjects, infrastructure and facilities that would allow them to express themselves, develop their talents and come into contact with art. They stressed that this initiative offers a platform and a space to express their thoughts and concerns in a daily reality that deprives them of such opportunities, within a school environment that is becoming increasingly stressful and pressurizing.

In their speeches, students highlighted that the government’s plan for a National Leaving Certificate will make school even more suffocating—turning it further into an exam centre. They called for the message to reach everywhere that, together with parents and teachers, they will impose a “student blockade” on the government’s plans. For this reason, they will continue informing their classmates, holding discussions and stepping up militant action in every school so that the government does not introduce what students have come to call the “Triple Panhellenic Examinations.”

Through students’ interventions, experiences were shared from actions in Piraeus schools against the “cauldrons of death,” referring to the fuel tanks in Piraeus and the danger they represent for students and local residents and which recently caught fire, as well as initiatives in Athens schools with banners and slogans such as “Their profits or our lives,” through which students highlighted that they stand alongside the workers at the Violanta factory and their families, following the deadly explosion that killed five women workers. They underlined that the policy of profit—and all those who serve it—is here, and that the struggle against it must be intensified.

They also decided on actions in view of the completion of three years since the crime at Tempi, with the slogan: “The system of profit soaked in blood! We will never forget the crime on the train!”

Greetings were delivered by Andreas Kargopoulos, Secretary of Greek Federation of Secondary State School Teachers; Kostas Danias, member of the Attica Parents’ Federation; and Praxitelis Papadopoulos from the Panteion University Student Association. Parents, teachers and university students stressed the importance of coordinating the struggle against the government’s plans and anti-education laws, conveying that the battle against the National Leaving Certificate is a common one—and that they will stand alongside the students in this struggle.

The school students decided to escalate their action on 26–27 February, with occupations in all schools and a student rally on 26 February, as well as participation on 28 February, together with workers and university students.