School advisor of philology of Secondary Education

1. Greek Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs Regional Directorate of Education of ThessalyDirectorate of Secondary Education of Trikala School advisor of philology of Secondary Education

2. Dear colleagues and representatives of education My name is Evaggeli Kotrotsiou. Last July I was in Latvia involved in a two- year Comenius Regio Program. I am working as a state School Advisor of Philologists, so I have under my educational and pedagogical surveillance a number of Secondary Education schools of the prefecture of Trikala in the region of Thessaly situated in central Greece. The town of Trikala is about 25 kilometres far from Karditsa, the place where I was born and have lived till now.

3. The prefecture of Trikala

4. Trikala is a town of historical importance. It is near a place called the rocks of Meteora (an area protected by UNESCO) in Kalambaka. It is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox Monasteries in Greece. During the whole year, many Greek and foreign visitors are attracted by the particular geographical morphology and the historical significance of the monasteries and its surrounding area too.

5. The Meteora and the monasteries

6. The fortress The town of Trikala The Litheos River

7. I am responsible for secondary education teachers’ continuous training (High School and Lyceum levels spending three years for each educational level) by helping them to put into practice the theoretical teaching methods acquired during their university studies through training sessions and their in-school experience on the basis of lifelong learning.

8. The school advisor’s role is: • to offer counseling and guidance concerning class management, as well as assessing the educational work of teachers by producing assessment reports. • to encourage the application of innovative, effective ICT methods so as to upgrade the role of Greek language and Literature in schools.

9. All the above are achieved through smooth cooperation with the Head-Directors of Secondary Education, the head-teachers, as well as the students’ guardians. I favour the value of sustainability in formal, informal and non formal education, as well as the humanities in the contemporary world for students’ preparation. I believe in developing creative and smooth relations among school, society and the natural environment.

10. During this school year the educational system in Greece is changing radically in its very philosophy. It is transformed into“the New School of the 21st century”or in other words the digital school which in harmony with the set goals by the European Union (e.g. cooperative learning and business spirit, lifelong learning, improvement of the education provided, active involvement in public affairs). Ι hope that this significant change will bring about an improvement in the educational system of Greece.

11. Last July the selection of the new 4-year Secondary Education Administrators was completed by the Regional Directorates with the participation of School Advisors all over Greece. Now the time has come to select new School Advisors.

12. Since the beginning of September I have been intensively involved in the new innovative Study Programmes, especially those concerning the 1st grade of Lyceum and the 3rd grade of High School, which will primarily be applied on an experimental level.

13. The Greek Educational SystemThe structure of Secondary Education Ages 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Gymnasium (High School) General Lyceum (Senior High School) Evening Gymnasium (Evening High School) Vocational Training Lyceum (EPAL) Vocational Training Schools (EPAS) Useful websites: www.minedu.gov.gr digitalschool.minedu.gov.gr Evening General Lyceum (Evening Senior High School) Evening Vocational Training Lyceum

14. environment Education by/within the environment Education about the environment Environmental Education Education for the environment education

15. Centres of environmental education These centres operate on a regional basis. They are located in areas with interesting natural scenery (forests, rivers, lakes) and their infrastructure can provide hospitable accommodation for student and teacher groups in student hostels, so that multi-day programmes may be carried out.

16. Sustainability Since the late 60’s students have participated in educational innovative-action programmes (such as Environmental ones, which till now were optional- but now the situation is still pending about them). These Programmes were conducted by a group of 20 students along with the guidance of coordinating school teachers and the supervision of responsible teachers appointed at the Directorates of Secondary Education all over Greece. The teaching method used to carry out the programmes included group-cooperation and projects.

17. From this year onwards, these programmes will be conducted on a totally different level. Firstly, a number of teachers will be trained on the compulsory subject “Research Projects” of the 1st grade of Lyceum (3 hours at General Lyceum and 2 hours at Vocational Lyceum) based on the handbook “the Innovation of Research Projects at the New Lyceum”, which is available only in Greek in digital form on the platform of digital school of the Greek Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs (http:/digitalschool.minedu.gov.gr). The project form is submitted to the Headmaster of the school unit at the beginning of the two four-month periods of the year.

18. The goals of this subject are: • interdisciplinarity • interscientific cooperation of teachers • differentiated teaching • group-cooperative learning method. Thus, a Reasearch Project Zone is established in the school timetable of the 1st grade of Lyceum. One of the disciplines involves the Environment and Sustainability. Method: Project- Assessment- Presentation It is hoped that this innovation will be really conducive to the conscious awareness of teachers and students about this issue.

19. This year in the 1st grade of High School (Gymnasium) the experiential subject “Environment and Education for Sustainability” is introduced . As far as primary school is concerned, over the last years a lot of knowledge has been propagated on the concepts of environment, sustainability and ecology.

20. Environmental Education on Sustainable Development in Secondary Education In 1997 the International conference of UNESCO in Thessaloniki, Greece, pointed out that Environmental Education had not brought about the expected results, although almost 30 years had passed since its initial inspiration and 10 years since the Convention of Moscow. Influenced by these pessimistic findings the “Declaration of Thessaloniki” (such was the title of the text adopted by the participants) encourages the proportionate adjustment of the Analytical Programmes of school subjects, as well as the redefining of the training programmes for teachers, so that education becomes the “vehicle” for the accomplishment of a more viable development on the part of governments.

21. During the Conference of Thessaloniki the concept of sustainability is highly emphasized, as well as the fact that it includes not only the environment but also poverty, food provisions, health, peace, democracy, etc. In this conference Environmental Education is gradually abandoned and replaced by the definition “Education for Sustainable Development”. It is worth noting that after 1997 and the Conference of Thessaloniki there has been no other conference concerning Environmental Education. On the contrary, Sustainable Development was the major issue of debate at the Global Conference about the environment (summer 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa).

22. In this extract, the interest of Ancient Greeks in nature and the environment is evident. Pre-historic settlements constitute models of architecture, as well as models of the harmonious relation between the natural environment and human creations. In Ancient Greece pre-historic settlements constitute models of architecture, as the human creation of the constructed environment, the buildings, stands in complete balance and harmony with the natural scenery and the climate of the specific area where it is situated. Specifically, the settlement of the Cape in Thira is mentioned, where the principle of refuse disposal is indeed applied successfully. Moreover, it is at the mines of Lavrio where the principle of recycling for saving water for industrial use is detected for the first time. (Vanikioti,1999: 145)

23. On October 6th 2011, during the ceremony of Awards for the Sustainable School, the Deputy Minister, Fofi Gennimata pointed out the significance of the Sustainable School especially nowadays.

24. “The sustainable School is a school coming from the future that can take us out of the deadlock, open new roads, lead us to adopt a new rationale and behaviour. Some may think that in the sustainable school children are simply involved in environmental issues, having classes in buildings that save up energy and learning in practice what ecology means. However, this is not all one may guess just from the title. The sustainable school is an open democratic school, where the teacher is not the authority but the coordinator of a process that requires the active participation of the student.It is a school where all the decisions are made on a democratic basis through discussion and debate. It is a school coming from the future to make us go forth once more.”

25. Thank you !!!