Teaching

[s.robbins2]

My name is Suzanne Robbins. I am currently a primary school teacher in UK, with 20 years experience and a Batchelor of Education Honours Degree from Hull University.. I am house hunting in 2011 with the help of my Creten friends and aim to live full time in Rethymnon,Crete and I am preparing to move to Crete full time in about 5 years time. I would like to teach in Crete – either English as a foreign language to adults or children in a language school, or private lessons or to work in a Primary School there. Will my degree be recognised on Crete? Please could you advise me of further qualifications that i would need so that i can do them in the next couple of years. I am taking a basic Greek course and then a level 1 course next year. Will I need further Greek qualifications? Do I need a qualification in Greek history and if so what is it and which course do I need to take? If I need a Teaching English as a Foreign Language qualification are there any specific courses that you would recommend?

[margarita]

A search on this forum will bring up various previous threads on this subject.

On the main site there is this

http://www.livingincrete.net/employment.html

Scroll down to Teaching and you will find some relevant information there.

Regards,

Maggie

[paulh]

its difficult to give an accurate answer now

With the closed shop legislation going through parliament over the next 2 months around 150 currently restricted occupations are to be opened up.

So far odd professions have been mentioned as part of that list but maybe only 10 in total so we don't even know what professions exactly. The government has basically said it is not going to detail all the professions yet because it will spoil Christmas. Requirements for teaching legally do not seem to read like the open market it is supposed to be and so I suspect it will be classed as a closed shop.

For each profession what barriers need to be removed to make it open will differ as will the compromises reached. So 2 to 4 months from now we will have better information on what the actual situation is. I think I saw that this has to be completed within 6 months otherwise the professions will just fall open without discussion so there will be a result it cannot be continually postponed.

there is a second consideration though. Most English teaching of a type that I think would be applicable to you is currently done at private schools, frontistera? spelling?. They are private paid for classes to boost the teaching received in the normal schools. Times are tough, money is in short supply and it is getting so that many Greeks just cannot afford to pay for extra lessons for their kids. So there is a backlash asking why do they need the frontistera, why cannot the normal school teachers do a proper job in getting the kids up to exam passing level. Part of my family run a frontistera specialising in Mathematics in Chania and they can see a definite reduction in the number of pupils coming for tuition. Less pupils means less need for teachers and in some cases less frontistera.

Having got the bad news out of the way, if you are looking some 5 years down the line then hopefully there will be a visible upturn in the economy and you will have time to see what the situation really is. You will never be wrong in learning more Greek so if you want to get on with something for now that will not be wasted.

[s.robbins2]

Thanks so much everyone. I will keep on the site to find more information

[paulh]

just to back up what I said here is an article from today 24th December which starts to detail some of the expected changes

http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.politikh&id=235913

the first item I reproduce below from a machine translation

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What eventually changed professions under the Memorandum:

* Tuition and language centers. It removed the restrictions to practice by residents of third countries and the obligation to have a specific legal form.

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note that the above is a declaration of "direction" rather than the final "law". It will all come out in the wash over the next couple of months


as a general point there are many many changes that will affect and change all sorts of current conditions/requirements and we cannot be sure to report them all. It really is a good idea for everyone to try keep up with what is changing over the next say 6 months and pay a bit of attention to the Greek news so you know of things that could affect your personal interests