Educational Responsibility, Social Sensitivity and Collective action by Chris Rambotas (PALSO Northern Greece) - Report

Christos Rambotas, President of PALSO Northern Greece, gave an extremely interesting and humanistic talk entitled “Educational Responsibility, Social Sensitivity and Collective Action”. The lucky ones who attended this really interesting talk were welcomed to the room by the wonderful music of Manos Hadjidakis.

Mr Rambotas talked to the audience about the role of PALSO. He said that PALSO’s schools are an open window to life and the world. He used the example of his daughter to refer to different teaching methods used by PALSO schools, like students playing games in English and online platforms. He also talked about the digital communication and its incentives. He suggested that we should be traditional in a modern way and that an immersion system with a balanced approach should be used. Our students, Mr Rambotas suggested, are citizens of the world, living a universal culture.

He insisted on the great importance of co-operation using the famous phrase “all for one and one for all”. He went on explaining what PALSO exactly is, what it means to be a member of this federation and the different activities organised. These include seminars, schools’ promotion, newsletters, market surveys available to the members, free owner training seminars, high quality standards. Mr Rambotas also referred to the different available exams offered by PALSO in collaboration with English and American Universities.

According to Mr Rambotas, PALSO is a socially sensitive and supportive federation. It invests in cultural experiences, like educational trips abroad, but also in the creation of a healthy competitive spirit through the introduction of distinction awards. A very interesting part of Mr Rambotas' talk was that PALSO has organised subsidised training seminars on various topics as well as the creation of a parents’ school. Some other important initiatives mentioned are the collaboration with the Disabled Access Friendly campaign, the donation of books to Albanian schools, the effort to lower the prices of books, the creation of a YouTube channel with really interesting videos about the federation, the website and the Facebook account.

As for the future, Mr Rambotas concluded that PALSO will fight for more communication, more donation, more participation and the creation of a blood bank.

It was a very enlightening talk on PALSO and its very important contribution to EFL and the society in general.

By Emmanuel Kontovas