Improving Learning Outcomes in Greece

Assessment and recommendations

Greece has made significant progress in advancing its education reform agenda over the past decade. Major initiatives have aimed to enhance the quality and equity of the education system, including the (re)introduction of internal and external school evaluation, reforms to teacher policy, the expansion of early childhood education, and important steps toward digital transformation. These efforts are especially notable given the economic constraints, demographic pressures and longstanding structural challenges faced by the system. They reflect a strong commitment to modernising education and aligning it more closely with the needs of students, schools and society.

Despite these advances, persistent challenges continue to affect the performance and equity of the system. According to PISA 2022, Greek students’ outcomes remain below the OECD average in all three domains, with a particularly steep decline in mathematics and reading since 2018. Disparities across socio-economic, geographical and school-level dimensions remain important. Greece also continues to operate one of the most centralised systems in the OECD, that is meant to secure national standards but is also limiting schools’ ability to respond to local needs. Many of the reform tools introduced in recent years are promising, but their impact on classroom practice will depend on strengthening implementation capacity at local level and improving coherence across policies and structures.

The following assessment outlines the main strengths and challenges of the Greek education system identified in this review and summarises key recommendations proposed to support sustained improvement.

Strengthening school autonomy with accountability and local capacity building

Strengths

Greece has established important structural foundations for more balanced governance. The (re)introduction of internal school evaluation, external evaluation and school improvement planning provides mechanisms that can gradually shift the system from compliance to developmental improvement. Regional Directorates, school networks (for educational support) and the roles of education advisers might help to create new pathways for distributed leadership and local professional support. The new curriculum and evaluation framework also offer opportunities to encourage more instructional dialogue and collaborative approaches to school improvement.

Challenges

Despite these advances, schools continue to operate in one of the most centralised systems in the OECD, which reports some advantages but also some important disadvantages. For example, decision-making authority remains concentrated at the central level in crucial areas such as staffing, budgeting and curriculum implementation, which is meant to ensure standards, but it is also limiting schools’ ability to adapt to diverse local needs. In addition, overlapping responsibilities across the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports (MERAS), the Authority for Quality Assurance in Primary and Secondary Education (ADIPPDE), the Institute of Education Policy (IEP) and regional structures often generate administrative burden and inconsistent guidance. School leaders face significant operational pressures, with uneven access to preparation programmes and professional learning that would strengthen their pedagogical leadership. Furthermore, evaluation tools have grown rapidly but they do not seem to be yet consistently aligned or supported across regions.

Taken together, these challenges highlight the need for Greece to consider a transit from a centralised governance model towards one that preserves national coherence while enabling schools and regional structures to assume greater responsibility for improvement. Strengthening leadership at all levels, clarifying institutional mandates and reinforcing support structures will be essential to ensure that autonomy is meaningful and that schools can use it effectively. A more balanced distribution of responsibilities, supported by coherent guidance and robust data, will help Greece turn promising governance reforms into sustained improvements in teaching and learning.

Recommendations

Enhancing school autonomy with accountability and support. Greece should gradually expand schools’ decision-making authority in areas where local knowledge can improve relevance and responsiveness, including aspects of curriculum implementation, school organisation and the allocation of staff time. Greater autonomy must be accompanied by clear objectives, guidance and robust support structures, particularly for schools in disadvantaged communities. Streamlining school self-evaluation and external evaluation, and emphasising improvement rather than compliance, will help embed autonomy within a culture of evidence-informed practice.

Empowering school leaders for effective decision-making. Strengthening leadership preparation, professional standards and ongoing training is critical. Developing a clear framework for school leadership competencies, aligned with the national framework for teachers, would clarify expectations and support distributed leadership models. Enhanced mentoring, peer collaboration and middle-leadership roles, such as mentors and co-ordinators, can help relieve administrative burden and increase leaders’ focus on pedagogy and school improvement.

Streamlining governance to support education efforts at school level. Greece should clarify the roles and responsibilities of central and regional bodies, ensuring alignment across curriculum, evaluation, teacher policy and digital initiatives. Strengthening data systems and communication channels between schools, regions and central authorities will help reduce administrative fragmentation and ensure consistent, evidence-informed decision-making.

Strengthening the teaching profession with responsive support and appraisal mechanisms

Strengths

Recent reforms have expanded permanent appointments and introduced new school-based roles, such as mentors and co-ordinators, which represent important steps toward strengthening the teaching profession. The new teacher appraisal system offers a clearer framework for professional growth and establishes expectations for teaching quality. Tools such as the Teacher Training Register and national training programmes lay the groundwork for more systematic professional learning across the system.

Challenges

Given demographic pressures (ageing workforce), Greece continues to experience high reliance on substitute teachers, which can disrupt instruction, especially in small and rural schools. Teachers have unequal access to sustained, practice-oriented professional development, and school-based collaborative learning remains limited. The teacher appraisal process is resource-intensive, not yet systematically linked to teachers’ learning needs and insufficiently connected to school improvement planning or career development. The absence of a widely recognised national framework for high-quality teaching makes it difficult to align teacher education, appraisal and professional learning across the career span.

These challenges point to the importance of consolidating recent reforms into a coherent and sustainable approach to strengthening the teaching profession. A clearer articulation of what constitutes high-quality teaching, coupled with better integration of appraisal, professional learning and career development, will help create a more supportive environment for teachers throughout their careers. Addressing these issues such is essential to improving classroom practice and ensuring that teachers can meet the expectations set by the new curriculum and digital transformation efforts.

Recommendations

Developing a framework for teacher and school leader competencies and high-quality teaching practices. A national competence framework, developed jointly with the profession, should clarify expectations and articulate the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed at each career stage. This framework should also include school leaders and align initial teacher education, professional learning, appraisal and career progression.

Embedding the teacher appraisal process in a continuous improvement cycle. Greece should ensure that teacher appraisal becomes a genuine tool for professional growth by more clearly linking appraisal to constructive feedback and relevant professional learning. The process should focus on narrative, improvement-oriented feedback for all teachers, with targeted support concentrated on those who most need it. Over time, the system should strengthen regular informal observations and feedback within schools so that appraisal contributes meaningfully to ongoing development.

Redesigning the teacher appraisal process to make it more sustainable and school-based. As Greece scales up its four-year appraisal cycle, the process should become more school-centred by gradually reducing the reliance on education advisers and giving principals, mentors and co-ordinators a greater role. External evaluators should focus primarily on teachers or schools requiring additional attention, while school-based staff increasingly lead routine appraisal. This shift will help ensure sustainability and strengthen pedagogical leadership within schools.

Strengthening school-based approaches to professional learning. Greece should continue shifting towards embedded, collaborative professional learning by empowering mentors, co-ordinators and school leaders to guide teachers’ development within schools. This requires building staff capacity, providing dedicated time for collaboration and strengthening mechanisms to monitor teachers’ learning needs and the quality of professional development. Clearer guidance and improved data will help ensure that school-based learning is coherent, targeted and impactful.

Expanding access and improving quality in Early Childhood Education and Care

Strengths

Greece has made important progress by introducing compulsory pre-primary education from age four and implementing a new curriculum. Participation in pre-primary education has increased significantly, and there is stronger policy recognition of early childhood education as a foundation for equity. Municipalities have expanded provision in many areas, and the reform momentum has created opportunities to strengthen both access and quality.

Challenges

Access to ECEC for children under age four remains uneven, with notable disparities between municipalities, particularly in rural or disadvantaged areas. Governance is fragmented between pre-primary education and childcare services, leading to inconsistencies in quality assurance, monitoring and workforce development. Structural conditions, including staff-child ratios, group sizes and staff workload, vary widely and are often insufficient to support high-quality interactions. Limited data on participation, quality, expenditure and children’s development reduce the system’s capacity to monitor progress and target support effectively.

The persistence of uneven access, fragmented governance and variable structural conditions indicates that Greece needs a more integrated and strategic approach to early childhood education. Strengthening the workforce, improving pedagogical quality and addressing disparities in provision will be crucial to ensuring that all children benefit from high-quality early learning opportunities. As reforms in pre-primary education advance, greater attention to children under four and stronger data systems will help build a more equitable and coherent ECEC sector.

Recommendations

Strengthening pedagogical (process) quality in pre-primary education. Greece should build on the new curriculum framework by providing clearer, practice-oriented guidance for teachers and ensuring that staff receive continuous support through targeted training and collaborative learning. Strengthening self-evaluation, peer feedback and monitoring of teaching practices will help ensure that curriculum innovations translate into high-quality interactions and more consistent learning experiences across all pre-primary settings.

Supporting quality pre-primary education through improved structural conditions. Greece should enhance the structural foundations of pre-primary provision by reducing administrative burden, improving staff-to-children ratios in settings facing the greatest challenges and strengthening support for multilingual and diverse learning needs. More flexible staffing arrangements and targeted resource allocation would allow leaders and teachers to focus on children’s learning and well-being, particularly in remote and disadvantaged areas.

Advancing quality, equity and integration across the whole ECEC sector. Greece should expand access to high-quality ECEC for children under age four, reduce barriers to participation and move progressively toward a more integrated system covering children from birth to school entry. This includes strengthening affordability, supporting municipalities to expand provision, and developing a curriculum framework for younger children that aligns with pre-primary education and supports coherent monitoring and quality assurance across the sector.

Supporting the purposeful integration of digital technologies in teaching and learning

Strengths

Greece has made substantial investments in digital infrastructure, platforms and educational resources. The national digital strategy and the forthcoming Strategic Plan place strong emphasis on digital literacy, artificial intelligence competences and collaboration with external partners. Recent years have created momentum for digital experimentation in schools, and teachers gained valuable experience in using online tools.

Challenges

Despite these advancements, purposeful integration of digital tools into everyday teaching remains limited and uneven. Teachers report varying levels of confidence and competence in digital pedagogy, and schools often lack well-developed strategies for digital learning. Evaluation of digital initiatives is limited, making it difficult to identify effective practices or mitigate risks related to inequity, distraction or excessive screen time. Governance of digital education is not yet fully aligned with broader reforms in autonomy, teacher policy and school improvement.

These challenges emphasise the need to shift from expanding digital infrastructure to embedding digital technologies meaningfully in teaching and learning. Supporting teachers to develop stronger digital pedagogical competences, ensuring alignment between digital tools and curriculum goals and strengthening evaluation mechanisms will be key to realising the potential of digital transformation. A more coherent governance framework, combined with greater leadership capacity at school level, will help ensure that digitalisation enhances learning and narrows rather than widens disparities.

Recommendations

Ensuring equitable student access to digital technologies by enabling school-level agency and system-wide coordination. Greece should strengthen equitable access to digital tools by combining a coherent national access strategy with greater school-level flexibility to select appropriate solutions. Expanding device provision, improving connectivity, targeting support to disadvantaged learners and prioritising remote regions will ensure that all students can benefit from digital learning. Clear objectives, inclusive infrastructure and coordinated planning will help sustain local innovation while narrowing existing access gaps.

Strengthening evidence-based policymaking through improved evaluation of digital education technologies. Greece should reinforce its digital education strategy by investing in rigorous impact evaluation, national research programmes and long-term monitoring tools that capture both quantitative and qualitative aspects of technology use. Active participation in international studies should be complemented by national secondary analyses and locally generated evidence, enabling more nuanced and context-sensitive policy decisions. A robust monitoring framework linking digital practices to learning outcomes will support continuous improvement.

Reinforcing teacher digital competences through targeted evaluation, professional development and school-based learning structures. Greece should consolidate its efforts to build teacher digital competence by integrating digital pedagogy into professional standards, designing validated evaluation tools and offering extended, practice-oriented training programmes. Strengthening school-based learning, peer collaboration and the role of mentors and co-ordinators will help embed digital competences into everyday practice. Providing clear guidance, sustained support and opportunities for hands-on learning will be essential for teachers to lead meaningful digital transformation.

Strengthening governance, leadership and school capacity to support meaningful digital transformation. Greece should build a more coherent digital education ecosystem by clarifying roles, improving coordination across platforms and support structures, and developing dedicated expertise at the school or cluster level. Establishing specialised digital learning advisers, consolidating governance mechanisms and ensuring sustained funding and evaluation will help align national strategy with local implementation. A coordinated approach that connects infrastructure, leadership and professional practice will enhance the impact and sustainability of digital reforms.