ATHENS – Greek Education Minister Costas Gavroglou said a deal he signed with the country’s international creditors requiring Greek teachers to worker longer hours and that he now opposes what he supported.

Gavroglou, from the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA-led coalition said he reluctantly agreed to the minimum 30 teaching hours although he opposed it as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ Administration has continued to renege on anti-austerity promises and vows to stand their ground against labor reforms demanded by the Troika of the European Union-European Central Bank-European Stability Mechanism (EU-ECB-ESM) putting up 86 billion euros in a third bailout.

Greek teachers often also have to drive between schools each day to make classes in addition to preparing subject courses, counseling and other duties and Gavroglou admitted they are overburdened because of austerity measures his party opposed then imposed and that there’s nothing that can be done about it so it’s not their fault.

He said he told envoys from the Troika but they didn’t care and ordered the additional hours. “We told them that our teachers, at the moment, are not able to work more,” Gavroglou said, claiming that Greek teachers do more than their European peers.

“Teachers here take care of children during breaks, set up tests and do all sorts of administrative work,” he said but he’s going ahead with the measures anyway.