Greek analyst Agis Veroutis reported in 247 News Agency that annual births in Greece fell from 114,766 in 2010 to 65,594 in 2025. Writing in his column, Veroutis warned that the demographic drop eliminated nearly half of newborn generations over fifteen years, creating a population deficit that is now moving through the country's school system.
Primary schools across Greece lost approximately 78,000 pupils over nine academic years as a direct result of the birth decline. Educational facilities are being abolished, merged, or downgraded, initially in rural villages and increasingly within the capital region of Attica. Official decisions regarding school closures are published in the Government Gazette, known in Greece as the FEK.
The column follows an earlier piece by Veroutis titled "Universities for children who were not born," which examined empty lecture halls projected for 2043. Veroutis noted that the same demographic gap will pass sequentially through kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools, and high schools before reaching higher education.
Declining Enrollment and Systemic Bloat
Greece currently employs about 180,000 teachers to instruct approximately 1.4 million students across the public school network. However, the overall student population is moving rapidly toward one million over the coming decade. Veroutis stated that if birth rates remain at current low levels, a student population of 600,000 will no longer be an extreme scenario.
Under such conditions, Greece would operate one of the most proportionally bloated educational mechanisms in Europe while delivering low quality instruction. Fewer students reduce the need for classroom sections, physical buildings, and teaching personnel. Veroutis argued that funds released by shrinking enrollments should be reinvested into higher quality instruction per pupil and improved teacher training.
He expressed concern that released resources could instead be absorbed into general state coffers or locked into permanent positions lacking actual duties. Such organic positions remain protected by state employment guarantees even after student numbers decrease, supported by influential public sector lobbying groups.
Tutoring Burden and Lack of Standards
Savings from demographic contraction could instead fund remedial teaching inside schools, special education, school psychologists, functional all-day school programs, and updated science laboratories. Veroutis noted that better school support would allow teachers to assist struggling pupils and enable high performing students to excel.
Effective internal support could also reduce reliance on phrontistiria, the private afternoon cramming schools that many Greek families pay for after regular school hours. Secondary education in Greece culminates in national standardized tests known as the Pan-Hellenic examinations, which determine university entry and drive demand for private tutoring.
Although textbooks and teacher guides exist for several subjects, Greek public education lacks a systematic modern framework with clear course objectives, shared tools, and key performance indicators. Today, individual educators receive a textbook and a classroom with the freedom to improvise. Lucky students get charismatic teachers, while unsuitable instruction remains unnoticed until students sit for national exams.
Teaching Hours and Union Resistance
Greece already maintains one of the lowest student to teacher ratios among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Despite small class ratios, Greek students continue to score poorly on international educational metrics. Veroutis argued that the fundamental issue lies in teacher training, placement, accountability, and incentives.
Secondary school teachers in Greece have a statutory requirement of 613 teaching hours per year. Distributed over 52 paid weeks, this amounts to less than 12 hours per week, or roughly 15 hours per week during the 40 weeks that schools remain open. Veroutis claimed that union efforts seek to reduce actual teaching responsibilities even further while maintaining full pay.
Teacher union leaderships in Greece have declared a strike abstention from mandatory job evaluations. Veroutis criticized union stances that seek permanent tenure and higher salaries without performance measurement. While pupils are graded, families are billed by private tutors, and national performance is measured internationally, public school educators face no workplace evaluation.
The Finnish Example and Structural Reform
Veroutis contrasted the Greek situation with Finland, where teachers are strictly selected, highly trained, decently compensated, and granted classroom autonomy within a respected public system. In the 2022 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Greek students scored 54 points behind Finland in mathematics.
Greece possesses ministerial circulars, regional education directorates, and interactive whiteboards, but Veroutis asserted that the system spends more effort avoiding work measurement than delivering education. He called on the Ministry of Education to draft a comprehensive new school map detailing necessary mergers, protected small schools, and staff reassignments with safe student transportation.
He concluded that organic positions should not be treated as national monuments because schools exist for students. Reinvestment of existing budgets into fewer students offers a key opportunity, provided the ministry updates teaching methods, evaluates teacher suitability, and provides paid training. Veroutis added that compulsory education over the past 30 years shares responsibility for current social challenges, noting that while Greece will have fewer children, educational poverty does not have to continue.
