The government’s wont of trying to appear as the protector of the poor and weak has been well known for some time.
The veneer of a pro-working class policy, however, does not impede it from slashing or abolishing social benefits and taxing whatever moves, always in the name of the victims of the crisis, naturally.
Under the pretext of protecting poor school children, Education Minister Kostas Gavroglu took yet another groundbreaking measure. He banned “the travel of students abroad in the framework of approved programmes of school activities, except for programmes supervised by the General Secretariat of Religion”.
The argument to support the ban was that certain students’ families do not have the financial wherewithal to finance such trips.
Obviously, Mr. Gavroglu has solved all the vital problems of the education system, so he decided to offer a few lessons in social justice and…socialist democracy.
After all, he has exhibited similar tendencies for quite a while. He did not like schools for excellent students, so he abolished them with a single law. Since all students cannot fund a trip abroad to explore the world and acquire new educational and social experiences, the trips are abolished for everyone.
The rationale, if such a thing can be said to exist here, of leveling everything downwards, is alive and well for the self-styled ‘first left-wing government’.
Soon, they will return to bygone eras, when trips abroad were for the few and select, including the minister himself.
Instead of focusing on the huge problems of the educational system, Mr. Gavroglu has taken up populist, sensational grandstanding, to soothe those who still support the Syriza government.
Unfortunately for the minister, however, we no longer live in splendid isolation.
As many bans as he may impose, youths who truly want to expand their horizons will find ways to travel and acquire the knowledge and experiences that will allow them to make their dreams reality.
