OECD, (2011). Education Policy Advice for Greece. Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education, OECD Publishing.

The future of Greece’s well-being will depend on improving educational performance to boost productivity and improve social

outcomes. In the current economic context, with the need to get best value for spending, Greece must and can address inefficiencies

in its education system.

The challenges are significant. For example, Greece lags behind many OECD countries in performance on PISA, including countries

with the same or lower levels of expenditure per student as well as countries with the same and lower levels of economic development.

Salary costs per student are above the OECD average, mostly because Greek teachers have less teaching time and Greece has smaller

classes. A smaller percentage of students who enter tertiary education complete a first degree within the statutory study time than in

any other country in Europe.

Greece must take action in order to address the unsustainable cost-structure of the system and the inefficiencies that are inherent

in an outdated, ineffective centralised education structure. This must include: transforming governance and management structures,

eliminating, consolidating or merging small and inefficient units, making significantly better use of human resources, improving

quality-assurance and information systems for accountability, and establishing far more effective structures to lead and sustain the

implementation of reforms. Real change can only be achieved through persistent, consistent implementation year after year, with

careful attention to capacity building for improvement.

To address the challenges, the government has established a bold agenda and sought advice from a task force on the development

and implementation of reform proposals that reflect best practices in OECD countries. This report provides the outcomes of the work

of the task force. It presents a roadmap for how the reforms can be successfully implemented, with pointers to relevant experience in

other countries. The report stresses short-, medium-, and long-term actions that have the potential to generate efficiencies.

This report is a contribution to policy discussions in Greece. We, at the OECD, are proud to have led this effort and stand ready to

continue to help Greece to better prepare for the future.