11/06/2007
PASOK to double child care
"My ambition is to double the present number of creches in 4 years” these were the words of PASOK Leader George Papandreou addressing his party Congress in May.
Our Greek Socialist Leader was outlining one of the key commitments in a proposed new social pact for families and children.
PASOK’s party programme contains commitments to
- Double the number of creches, accompanied by national or local government subsidies of the cost of child care places, in 4 years
- Complete provision of infant care requirements in 8 years
- Flexibility in creche programmes and opening hours, in order to provide the broadest possible services and greatest possible cover for working parents, staying open in the afternoon and during the summer months. At the same time, promotion of innovative home-based child care programmes.
“Children are at the core of Greek society, as any other: they represent its future and reflect its progress and development” said Giannis Sgouros, Prefect of Athens. “The aim of adequate, integrated child care is therefore imperative.”
“It should no longer be a shame for young women to send their children to nurseries before schooling age” write Eliza Politi and Danai Tasopolou of PASOK Youth. “We need to create the structures and change the mentalities. It is urgent to change the mentality that the reconciliation of family and professional life is for the women to figure out.” For these members of PASOK Youth there is both a lack of child care institutions and facilities and a traditional form of the family according to which women take care of the children at home.
Almost a thousand people from Greece have signed the PES Child care book following a campaign by PASOK. One of the first signatories was Anna Diamantopoulou, the former European Commissioner and now a PASOK member of the Greek Parliament.
