ANOTHER PASOK SCANDAL - SYRIZA Calls for MP's Resignation Over Leaked Exam Scandal

Main opposition 'Coalition of the Radical Left' MP for Messinia Thanassis Petrakos called on former PASOK education minister Evi Christofilopoulou to resign from her seat in Parliament, following reports that the minister's daughter had set up a vocational training college in partnership with a private school owner found guilty of leaking questions from the 2009 university entrance examinations.

Fotis Bougas, owner of the Bouga Schools in Kalamata, had been found guilty of leaking the exam papers to students and fined by the regional secondary education directorate (PYSDE) while a decision on his appeal to the central secondary education directorate (KYSDE) is still pending. The relationship between Bougas and the minister's daughter was reported by the private school educators' federation (OIELE).

"Mrs. Christofilopoulou has an obligation to resign as an MP since this revelation vindicates - as OIELE's announcement stresses - the president of the federation, who had asked for Mrs. Christofilopoulou's resignation in July 2011 from the position of deputy education minister," the state news agency quoted Petrakos as saying.

In an announcement on Wednesday, OIELE said the news that Christofilopoulou's daughter will be taking over as head of the private vocational training college 'Orizon' opening on the premises of the Bouga schools was "an answer to the question about who was protecting Mr. Bougas and intervened so that his case at KYSDE has not been heard up to this day".

The announcement also notes that the vocational training college started up in September, two months before the omnibus bill containing a "convenient" ordinance allowing private schools to offer their facilities for commercial uses after school hours was passed by Parliament. It also pointed out that Christofilopoulou had repeatedly tried to issue circulars with the same content while she was minister but had been blocked by OIELE, based on a unanimous opinion of the state's legal council forbidding the use of private school buildings for commercial uses.