‘Why is Sweden bringing back the teacher and paper books at a time when we have suddenly remembered to digitize everything?’ the author asks. [Shutterstock]
The fact that the digitization of the inconceivably exhausting bureaucracy for the Greek citizen has simplified procedures and accelerated daily operations in the private and public sector, offering time and cost savings, is undeniable. However, common practices are not the best recipe in all areas.
A number of changes are in the pipeline in education, some radical and others less so, which in my opinion should not be adopted so readily. A typical application submitted to any public service office in Greece needed validation, through signature and stamp, by Greek authorities. However, it can now by signed digitally through the online Gov.gr system. No employee can excel or evolve from signing and stamping forms.
However, students learn much more at school and university than the knowledge provided by textbooks. Teachers and professors could very easily be replaced by online learning platforms, robots, podcasts, computers, tablets and other special AI (artificial intelligence) systems. But has anyone considered what such a decision and practice implies for both our children and society as a whole?
As an academic, I am well aware that the knowledge that I offer in the classroom to my students can be offered by others far better. In addition, AI, which has access to global knowledge, could simply flatten me in the delivery of a lesson or a lecture. But is that the point?
Do our children go to school and university simply to learn vocabulary, modern Greek history, The Odyssey and The Iliad and the 10 highest mountains in Greece? Can a student receive love, care, advice from a robot? Can a child have interaction with a computer? With whom will the debate take place that will develop the critical faculties of any student, how will initiatives be implemented, such as those taken by teachers in class, for example, for group work, which will develop the soft skills of young people? Skills which are essential for their professional and personal development. How will we learn to communicate, adapt, listen, speak, challenge, think, choose and develop if we are permanently and for all purposes in front of a screen?
How will we learn to communicate, adapt, listen, speak, challenge, think, choose and develop if we are permanently and for all purposes in front of a screen?
Or is that exactly the point? To not communicate, not adapt, not listen, not speak, not assert, not think, not choose and not grow? Why is Sweden, which is ahead in the indices that we claim to be important, from PISA scores to happiness indicators, bringing back the teacher and paper books at a time when we have suddenly remembered to digitize everything, horizontally and without any other criterion than reducing economic costs?
Instead of investing billions in equipment, why not improve working conditions for teachers and lecturers, who, exhausted by daily life, demands and low salaries, are forced to work 10 jobs to make ends meet? Or do we want them exhausted so we can then say they are not doing their jobs well? Why do we not strengthen education in practice and not with digital effects so that every teacher and professor has the courage and the desire to do his or her job with inspiration and enthusiasm, just as he or she dreamed of doing when studying at university and not as in practice forced by the circumstances and the degradation of the function he or she carries out? And when the ministry in question decides to do an evaluation, and rightly so, it should start with itself first and examine whether it is doing its job properly, without throwing the responsibility to those who depend on it.
Because if I have my child abandoned on the street and I barely provide the basics for them to survive, then I cannot demand that child set key performance indicators (KPIs) that are SMART and test them on whether they speak three languages, play two musical instruments and have gold medals in sailing and the marathon.
A lot of the reforms remind me of the fireworks being thrown at weddings. However, to really be able to throw firecrackers you have to judge the result and not the initiative. For this reason it would be wiser to save the firecrackers for last.
Marina Selini Katsaiti is an associate professor and chair of the Agricultural University of Athens’ Department of Economic and Regional Development in Amfissa in Fokida.
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