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General education  

School system (primary and secondary education) 

Greek children start school at the age of six years as of September 1st. Primary education takes six years. Secondary schooling is divided into two levels. The first of these (lower secondary) is entered by all those who have completed primary education and is compulsory; thus counting primary school as well, compulsory education lasts nine years. After the lower secondary phase students may either continue their studies or leave to find employment. 

 In the second phase of secondary education students may opt for a school offering either a general or a technical education, or for a technical college. The latter offer practical teaching and training over a period of two years, whereas schools normally offer a three-year course. 

 In the technical schools students may opt for a professional course; twelve such course structures are available, including one for agriculture. In 102 of the country's 236 technical schools students may specialize in agriculture in the second and third year of the course. 

 Within this specialization, the following options are open to students: 

    1. Floriculture 
    2. Agricultural machinery 
    3. Crop production 
    4. Animal production 
    5. Cooperatives and agro-industrial farming 
    6. Fisheries and aquaculture 
    7. Forestry. 
 Specialisation courses concentrate on the following: agricultural production, animal production, agricultural product technology, glasshouse cultivation, agricultural machinery, hydrobiology, and agricultural product cost. 

 The technical colleges similarly offer their students a variety of agricultural specialisations, such as: 

    1.  Milk products (in one college) 
    2.  Horticulture and floriculture (two colleges) 
    3. Agricultural mechanisation (two colleges). 
 Study at this level in certain areas such as animal husbandry, arboriculture and meat processing was not  set in operation before 1988, on account of the low numbers of interested students. 

  
Higher education  

 Institutions offering higher education are the Universities,  Technical Universities and the Technological Educational Institutions (TEI). 

 Admission to higher education is normally decided on the basis of the results of a national common entry examination. Any student who has completed secondary education may be a candidate for these entrance examinations, while candidates from technical schools may apply for admission to a TEI on the basis of their school results. It may be noted that the majority of students entering higher education come from schools offering a general education. Tuition fees are not charged at any of the Greek national higher education institutions. 

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