KKE Slams New National Leaving Certificate as Frontal Attack on Students, Parents, Teachers

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has launched a fierce critique against the government’s proposed reforms to upper secondary education and the new National Leaving Certificate, denouncing them as a ‘frontal attack’ on students, parents, and educators. In its statement, the KKE argues the changes aim to push more students toward early vocational training, making General Lyceum increasingly inaccessible—aligning with long-standing EU policy directives that, according to the party, successive governments (ND, SYRIZA, PASOK) have uniformly implemented. Central to this strategy, the KKE claims, is producing a ‘cheap, flexible workforce with low skill requirements’ to serve corporate profitability. The party also warns of an expanding market for private certifications and qualifications, undermining educational and professional rights of youth—and straining family budgets by deepening dependence on private tutoring centers. It holds the ND-led government primarily responsible, citing broad cross-party consensus—including PASOK, which the KKE accuses of acting as a ‘rabbit’ for government policies. The KKE further rejects the government’s justification of eliminating the ‘three-hour Panhellenic exam stress,’ noting it ignores the party’s and educators’ proposal for modular, grade-based assessments and retakes per subject. It adds that the European models cited by the government have failed to reverse the devaluation of Lyceum, instead intensifying school and student stratification and widening inequality in access to higher education. ‘Lyceum is ill because it reflects an unjust, historically obsolete society,’ states the KKE, describing a divided reality: one world of creation stripped of basic rights, another of parasitism and antisocial waste.