Greek Left Alliance proposes sweeping education reforms, including abolishing national exams

The Greek Left Alliance (ELAS) presented a comprehensive plan for public education built around five core interventions and an additional umbrella measure. The proposal calls for scrapping the nationwide university entrance exams, replacing them with a free‑access admission system based solely on the high‑school diploma for selected programmes, and eliminating the minimum entry score (EBE). It also includes a new high‑school structure that separates preparatory tutoring from an autonomous secondary‑education institution, introduces a unified general‑education curriculum for the first two years of secondary school, and removes university‑level content from the high‑school syllabus.

Further measures aim to strengthen technical and professional education by creating two‑year degree programmes that grant a professional licence, linking them with labour‑market demand, and allowing admission without exams for graduates of vocational (EPAL) and technical (GELEP) schools. ELAS emphasized its stance on non‑state universities, stating, “We will not allow the country to become an El Dorado of university miseducation,” while acknowledging the recent Supreme Court ruling and the millions of students already enrolled.

The plan seeks to reshape Greece’s education system to reduce costs for families, curb exam‑related stress, and better align graduates’ skills with market needs.