Pharos accepts Dan Andrew’s invitation delivering a message to revamp Greek at state schools

The Pharos group of Greek language academics and advocates, has sent a letter to Natalie Hutchins the Victorian minister for Education and in it “snippets of Premier Daniel Andrews’ interview to the well known and widely read Saturday edition of Neos Kosmos (29/10/22), as well as the link to the full interview.”

The letter said that the Pharos Working party were “heartened by the support the premier expresses towards the teaching of Greek in our state schools.”

Further they welcome the fact “that his doors are open to discuss this matter further.”

They also wrote that they were “grateful of the letters of support by Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, Bronwyn Halfpenny” and said that the working party has “the support of MPs of Greek background.”

“We are certain that your doors are also open and are quite happy to discuss this matter at any time with yourself and the Premier,” the working party wrote.

They recognised that the Victorian government was in caretaker mode but wrote that it “does not mean that discussions cannot take place.”

In the letter they asked for their proposals to be considered and said that their proposals also include “a part time funded position to implement the components of our strategic plan.”

The Pharos working group wrote that their “model was a pilot program, which if successful may be of benefit to other community language groups as well.”

The letter was signed off by Anita Ladas, Dr Stephie Nikoloudis, Professor Joseph Lo Bianco and Theo Markos.

Pharos Working Party have a National Strategic Plan for Modern Greek and is chaired by the MGTAV and is facilitated by Professor Joseph Lo Bianco.

It consists of representatives from Association of Greek Language and Culture Schools in Victoria (GLACS), Community Languages Victoria (CLV), Department of Education and Training Victoria (DET), Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne Victoria (GOCMV), Modern Greek Studies, La Trobe University, Modern Greek Teachers’ Association of Victoria (MGTAV) and the Modern Languages Teachers’ Association of Victoria (MLTAV).

neoskosmos.com