How Public Administration Restructuring Can Contribute to Greek Educational Reform - Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration - page 313

(textbooks, exercises, teacher books, specifications) of all lessons in the syllabus of
the 12 years of formal compulsory studies.
A third feature of the system is bureaucracy. A lot of work that is being done by
paper and pencil is now fully digitized. Some of the most important documents are
individual student sheets (which contain certificates and scores of every student in
each quarter), registry of students (which contains a hardcopy of score transcripts),
school leaving certificates (most important documents that accompany the student
for the rest of his or her productive life), directory of students (includes all stu-
dents who attended this school in the past), absence registration topics, the main
proceeding topic, mail protocols, and others. All this paperwork is now becoming
digital, thus saving a lot of cost, money, and system reliability.
Procurements on this scale have been attempted a few times in the past two
decades. The outcomes of these projects are still under intense debate (Orwa, 2009).
Many people support the idea that such large-scale, top-down, massive initiatives
are, by default, too bureaucratic and tend to degenerate quickly. On the other hand,
clever small-scale interferences can lead to more flexible and creative conditions.
14.7 Perspectives
he term public sector educational organization refers to that part of the economy
that is concerned with providing governmental or state services in the realm of
education (provisionally including all its three levels: primary, secondary, and ter-
tiary). According to this definition, it is among the fundamental missions of a state
to provide the necessary conditions for economic prosperity and social justice for
all its citizens (Freire, 1985). These two pillars define the function of the state as a
strategic node that designs and applies policies, to achieve its long-term visions and
goals (Christensen, Lægreid, Roness, & Rovik, 2007).
However, Greece needs more than that: a national strategy that defines a gen-
eral framework, priorities, and roles for achieving long-term goals. The frame is
determined by a number of necessary structural reforms aimed at restructuring
research and facilitating cooperation among all key factors in creating innovation
ecosystems.
In the area of applied research, the country must accelerate and augment the
restructuring of the fragmented potential to create nodes of excellence with a criti-
cal mass. To achieve excellence, a series of measures are necessary. It is needed to
(a) introduce the evaluation criteria of both researchers and research institutions,
(b) offer researchers and tutors better working conditions, such as recognition of
creativity and elimination of bureaucratic procedures, and (c) create the appropriate
institutions for the implementation of the national strategy plans (Haynes, 2003).
A national strategy should identify specific roles for each of the developers of
innovation and provide the necessary measures and incentives for seamless col-
laboration. It will not be dictated by upstream bureaucratic decisions unrelated