Greek Education: The Saviour of Hellenism in South Australia?

Abstract

From the foundation of community life in South Australia, the Greeks have had an unshakeable faith in the twin bases of their community: their religious faith in Greek Orthodoxy and the Greek language as the bearer of Greek culture and traditions. Along with their Churches they set up community schools in the hope of passing down to succeeding generations the essential values of Hellenism. Their passion to preserve and promote the Greek Language and Hellenic values led them to give full support to initiatives that would provide fully qualified teachers for their children and would ensure for Greek culture and civilization its rightful place in the forefront of South Australia’s claim to being a cultural leader of Australia. By the 1980’s they had in place a full educational infrastructure for the promotion of Hellenism. In itself, however, this structure has, to date, proved to be inadequate in ensuring the maintenance and promotion of the Greek language and Hellenic values. Basically this has been due to the fact that those of Greek descent do not constitute a significant enough proportion of this State’s population and that the Greek language is not needed or used in the major spheres of life. It seems to be of value for the esoteric needs of the Greek community that is itself being deeply influenced by the Anglo-Celtic culture of Australia. This paper presents an analysis of the achievements of the Greek community n the area of Greek education and suggests what else needs to be done to ensure the continuation of Hellenism in South Australia.