Etudes par pays volume 2, PDF, 346 p., 1,4 Mo - Femise

11873_2002 Study D2: Poverty, Informal Sector, Health and Labour
Due to the demographic deterioration and the ageing population, the number
of children in primary education decreased from about 900,000 in 1981 to
647,000 in 1999 and remained pretty stable thereafter, most probably
because of the rising enrollments of immigrant children. The number of
pupils in secondary general education is also down, from 716,000 in 1991 to
590,000 in 2002. However, at the same time, the number of students in
secondary technical and vocational education has increased by about 16.5
per cent, from 135,000 in 1991 to 157,000 in 2001, pushed by the rising
unemployment of youth with only secondary general education.
In tertiary education, despite the demographic hold down effect of
enrollments at the earlier educational levels, the demand for higher
education has been rising to a considerable degree. Thus, the number of
students in Universities from 86,000 in 1981 climbed to 117,000 in 1991
and to 149,000 in 2001, experiencing an increase of 27.4 per cent in the last
ten years. Analogous is the situation with the third level technical education,
in which the number of students increased from 29,000 in 1981 to 78,000 in
1991 and to 91,000 in 2001. In addition, due to the numerus clausus
restriction in Greek tertiary education, a very substantial number of Greek
students are studying currently in foreign universities.
Illiteracy is now insignificant in Greece and concerns very high ages. The
adult literacy rate (% of age 15 and above), although high even by mid-
1980s (93.2 per cent), has increased by the year 2000 to 97.2 per cent,
whereas the youth literacy rate (% of ages 15-24) is now 99.8 per cent, up
from 99.4 per cent in 1985. Adult women literacy rate is only very slightly
lower than that of men (female/male ratio 0.97 in 2000), while female youth
literacy is the same as male youth. We may note in this context, that the
female enrollment in secondary and tertiary education is higher than the
enrollment of male (female as a % of male 103 and 107, respectively for the
two levels of education, in 1998). Although the inability to read and write
has been eradicated in Greece, the ‘’functional illiteracy’’ is widespread,
creating problems of integration in the labour market.
1.2. Economy and Labour
The Greek GDP was, in 2002, of the order of 141 billion Euros, divided by
major economic sector as follows: agriculture 9.1 billion (6.4 per cent);
FONDAZIONE CENSIS
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