P.M. Communications: In our last interview you told us, and I quote: "In an age of materialism and technological advancement, it is important to remember that ideals are the most valuable things that we have." Please share with the readers of The Telegraph how your ideals about education are being carried out here in Greece today.

Minister Giannakou: Education is one of the main priorities of the New Democracy government. We are working not only for tomorrow, but looking forward twenty years to the next generation who are the ones who will really benefit from the reforms we are introducing today.

The main values that we want to cultivate through our education system are human rights, gender equality, tolerance and dialogue, living side by side with people from different nationalities. We have a very successful policy on this matter. For instance, we recently introduced the Holocaust into the Greek curriculum. I don't know why it was not done before.

The values that we are cultivating are based on those of Greek antiquity. As we all know, Greece is the birthplace of western civilisation in terms of culture, science and philosophy. However, we must be very careful not to be conservative in our approach to our rich educational heritage but to benefit form our tradition and give those ideals new expression in contemporary Greece. After all, a school is not a shop were you go and just get the knowledge, it is a house for the children.

We are specifically developing multicultural education. In our schools the best-performing pupils carry the Greek flag at the National Day Parade. It is a very important event for both, parents and pupils, and a source of pride to demonstrate their achievement in public by walking with the flag in their hands. Any child, even if he or she was born abroad, can now carry the flag with no further discussion if they want to. All the children are equal in our schools and since the beginning of our term; there have been no more problems with this issue.

The role of education is not just to provide students with a basic knowledge of mathematics and humanistic studies, etc. One of its main tasks is to integrate the personality in the society. This is becoming more and more important with the disintegration of the traditional family unit. In many cases, nowadays, families have only one parent therefore the school has to take over more responsibilities. In the past, the family was much more authoritarian and if there were problems between the parents than the grandparents or uncles and aunts could take over the upbringing of the child and become a role model. Today things have changed and if there is a problem between the parents, the future of the child becomes more uncertain. Of course, we cannot take over all the responsibilities of the family but the role of the school has changed. We have programmes in place for the psychological support of the children and this year we trained 5.000 educators about personal relations and bullying, a big problem.

In our school curriculum, we also tackle issues such as environment, road safety, health programmes, drug programmes, etc. This curriculum is very complete and has the final objective to develop responsible and tolerant human beings. When someone is led by humanistic ideals, everything is easier. First of all the individual is perceived as a subject and not as an object. The ancient Greeks believed in the internationality and globality of the world - though not in economic globalisation of course!

P.M. Communications: You are a champion of women's rights and a very successful woman in your own right. How is that expressed in your educational policies?

Minister Giannakou: Even though 65% of the people working in the education sector are women, there are no women in the trade unions. This is something that we hope will change. In the schools, we have a programme named Kalipatra named after a woman who entered the Olympic games even though it was not permitted. Kalipatra had a son who was trained to compete in the Olympics but when her husband died before the games, Kalipatra took over as coach and sneaked into the competition dressed as a man. When her son won his race, his mother ran to embrace him and her cloak fell off, revealing the deception. We invested 10 million Euros in this programme, preparing material and training teachers.

On the other hand, the government is making many efforts to follow the European directives and improve the legislation. We have recently agreed to adopt the directives for the equality in the labour market, sexual harassment including the reversal of the burden of proof.

P.M. Communications: The heritage and proud educational traditions of Ancient Greece are an incredible resource at the time of promoting Greece as an educational destination on the international stage. Do you think that for the foreign students the Greek tradition has a special appeal?

Minister Giannakou: Yes, absolutely! However, the International University in Thessalonica will be offering a very modern education. We have just appointed the Directorial Committee. Mr. Costas Ramenos, the Vice Rector of the City University of London and a specialist in Economics and Marketing, is to be the President of the Committee. He is a very knowledgeable man and has impeachable educational credentials. Another professor from the City University, Mr. Levy, will also be a member of the Committee, as well as other distinguished professors from Thessalonica and Athens and some members of the Federation of Greek Industries.

The University will at first focus on three main areas: Economy and Marketing, Technology and the Humanities. The lessons will be in English and there will also be the option of having Greek lessons for those who want to learn the language. The University is soon going to be established and the building begun. There is a very large plot of land near Thessalonica that the Mayor will donate to the University in order to create the campus.

The university will start operating in 2007 by offering Masters degrees to students. From there we will extend the range of degrees on offer.

P.M. Communications: The International University is part of a broader change brought on in part by the Bologna Process. Do you feel that Greek education is becoming more outward looking and international?

Minister Giannakou: For the first time in our history the Association of the Rectors of the Universities in Greece have made propositions for changes in higher education. We have already created quality assurance, a proper system of evaluation and life-long learning at the universities. Next week we will present a proposition from the National Council for Education, an advisory body of the Ministry, for a law for the universities. This law, which be applied from 2010, will fulfil all the criteria of the Lisbon strategy and the Bologna process. I believe that we must move ahead with these reforms in order to ensure the quality of our universities.

One of the demands of our rectors was the internationalisation of our universities. For example, in 2004 it was not permitted to have common masters with foreign universities. As soon as I came into office I changed this law in order to give the opportunity to our students to have masters in other languages.

It is not only a matter of competition and the implementation of the Lisbon directives. I strongly believe that knowledge has no frontiers.

P.M. Communications: And how are you seeking to bridge the gap between the job market and the education that you are offering?

Minister Giannakou: The universities have their own values and will never take orders from the labour market but we also have to be responsible. It is no use for the student or the state if we produce professionals who have no chance of finding a job. Therefore, we are now working together with the Ministry of Development to create a common organisation for research as currently 80% of the research carried out in Greece takes place at the Universities. We want to create a system that will enable the government to lay down the guidelines for very important sectors in research.

We are also creating new departments at universities to respond to the demands of the labour market for instance in communications, digital technology, etc. This is essential as otherwise we create structural unemployment, with many people unable to find a job and jobs for which we cannot find the right people. Now that the society is developing so fast, we have to combine growth, competition, education and jobs.

P.M. Communications: We understand that at the moment there are around 55.000 Greek students abroad. What are you doing to reverse this tendency?

Minister Giannakou: Our idea is to provide them with more opportunities in Greece in order to stop the brain drain and we invite our students to come back and foreign students to join us. We believe that the International University will be the first step in reversing this trend, as it is a very high quality and credible proposition financed by the state guided with the vast knowledge and international experience of the Committee of the Directors.

P.M. Communications: If a proposed change to the constitution is implemented then Greek private universities will be up and running by 2009. Your sector is also attracting private investment by implementing the first projects under the new PPP law. How does the increasing role of the private sector reflect a change in philosophy in the education sector?

Minister Giannakou: This is a matter of changes in the Constitution. The Parliament will vote before and after the election on this issue. Our party, as well as the main opposition party propose that we recognise non-state, non-profit universities. These universities would remain under to auspices of the state, with the same rules for quality assurance and standards as in the state universities.

As far as the PPP's are concerned, we believe it is a very good opportunity for the private sector to build schools designed by the Ministry of Education. The private companies are in charge of the construction and the state pays them back over a period of 25 years. However, they have nothing to do with the programme and operation of the schools.

We consider PPP's as a very good idea and we already have many offers. Together with the Ministry of National Economy we have accepted a proposition for the construction of 27 schools in the Attica region. The University of Peloponnese and in Thessalonica also see many opportunities. Naturally, the program for the construction of the schools continues the way it was. For example, in 2004/05 we spent 373 million Euros for building schools.

P.M. Communications: You mentioned before that the whole government and yourself as Minister of Education are working on a long-term strategy base, looking 20 years ahead. What do you want your main legacy to be?

Minister Giannakou: I think that the most important legacy that we have to leave behind is the quality assurance, something that was forgotten by the previous government. They eliminated that kind of evaluation, which created many problems. In 1999 we have signed up to the Bologna process in higher education. Now we are waiting for 2010 to fulfil concrete criteria that will play a very important role in the future.

We are focused on the internationalisation and the globalisation in the education system. In order to achieve this we have to create links and foment cooperation and we need to have a strong government. We must to change both, the way we work and the way we think. We have to improve the mobility within the country, the cooperation between the universities, and the cooperation with other countries' universities in order to give our students a real cosmopolitan education and create true citizens of the world.