The president of the Greek Left Alliance, Alexis Tsipras, visited the Grava school complex yesterday, where he held an in-depth discussion with parents and teachers about the problem that had arisen.
In a post, the Greek Left Alliance leader said: “For three weeks now, a gas odour has kept the Grava school complex closed. Investigations so far have failed to identify the cause of the smell, but have been highly revealing about a number of other, equally serious issues,” he said.
At the same time, he noted “serious shortcomings in the safety of the facilities, which add to a policy of undermining public education by a government that is hiding and unable to take responsibility, passing the buck wherever it suits it.”
“At a time when the government of Mr Mitsotakis had 36 billion from the Recovery and Resilience Facility at its disposal, it was able to hand much of it to cronies through direct awards, but could not spend anything on modernising and improving the resilience of infrastructure such as schools,” he also alleged.
Alexis Tsipras concluded: “This situation cannot continue. The relevant authorities must step up their investigations, rule out any danger and take the necessary measures to ensure students can safely return to their classrooms.”
In the video accompanying the post, as he listens to the concerns of parents speaking with him, he stresses the need for “immediate maintenance of the facilities. We should take the findings of the TEE (Technical Chamber of Greece) report as a wake-up call and use this as an opportunity to inspect every one of the thousands of school complexes. There are thousands of ‘Gravas’ across Greece—not on this scale, but they are the same thing.”
Alexis Tsipras also spoke of the “need to talk about the resilience of infrastructure, and to ensure the average citizen does not feel they have a state standing against them instead of standing by them.”
In practice, he continued, citizens feel they are being “‘bounced around’ between municipalities and the government. I see some people trying to gain political advantage. I see responsibility on the part of the municipal authorities and the government.” However, he concluded, “I see a municipal authority that is trying to take responsibility and do something, and a government that is hiding.”
Accompanying the Alliance president on his visit to Grava were the party’s education policy chief and her deputy, Ioanna Laliotou and Panagiotis Kassianos, respectively.