ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Education Minister Niki Kerameus presented a refreshed education policy package that will bring key changes in the national curriculum, at a special event held in Athens on Monday evening.

Kerameus presented the new policy titled "New Upgraded School", which centers around four main initiatives that will take effect at the start of the new school year in September, introducing, among other things:

– Skills workshops, to be incorporated in national curricula across all school grades

– Equal opportunities for all students, by strengthening equal access to education with a national action plan for students with learning difficulties

– The so-called 'alternative education paths' which include computer science and a range of vocational education, training

– The 'strengthening' of teachers' position within a decentralized education system, aiming for an autonomous, free school

"Think of a child that will start school in the 1st grade in 2021, will finish school in 2033 and complete university studies in 2037," said Mitsotakis. "We need to think of how the world will then be," he stressed.

Other key aspects in this most recent concept of what an education curriculum should do for students includes the reintroduction of the vocational guidance course in schools.

One in four students enrolled in a private vocational training institution is a public university graduate, noted Mitsotakis.

"Not everyone can and should go to university," noted the premier. "There are creative professions too," he highlighted.