There are public and private dimotika"domokas" (primary education), gymnasia (middle school; secondary education), lykeia (high school; secondary education). Some of them are for foreigners, usually children of British or American families. For example, see American Community Schools.
Public and private IEK
According to the article 16 of the Greek constitution, private tertiary education was not allowed in Greece. However, there were some Laboratories of Free Studies (Ergastiria Eleutheron Spoudon), often franchises of foreign universities, sometimes non-profit organizations, which advertised themselves as private universities or as centers from public universities abroad. For example, see DEI College/University of London International Programmes and UCLan, I.S.T. College/University of Hertfordshire, New York College (European and American Education), BCA Business College of Athens, ALBA Graduate Business School, University of Wales, Bangor, Mediterranean College, Deree College, Athens Information Technology Center of Excellence for Research and Education etc.
Following changes in the Greek legislation, in 2008 and 2010, private organisations, referred to as colleges, have been authorised to offer foreign undergraduate and postgraduate programmes under the monitoring of the Greek Ministry of Education, for example iCon College.
All levels are overseen by the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs, which exercises centralised control over public schools, by prescribing the curriculum, appointing staff, and controlling funding. The ministry exercises a supervisory mandate over private schools. At a regional level, the supervisory role of the Ministry is exercised through Regional Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education, and Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education operate in every Prefecture. Tertiary institutions are nominally autonomous, but the Ministry is responsible for their funding, and the distribution of students to undergraduate courses. Currently the Greek government only recognises degree programmes offered by the state-run universities although there are several private universities and colleges offering degree programmes that are validated and overseen by American, British and other European universities. The Greek government is pressured to recognise these overseas programmes.
All levels of education are catered for by both private and public schools. State-run schools and universities do not charge tuition fees and textbooks are provided free to all students, although, from 2011 onwards, there has been noticed a shortage in new textbooks, forcing students to either buy stock books from bookshops, or participate in parent-teacher association-run book trades.
There are also a number of private tutors schools, colleges and universities operating alongside the state education and providing supplementary tuition. These parallel schools, called Frontistirio (Greek: φροντιστήριο) provide foreign-language tuition, supplementary lessons for weak students, as well as exam preparation for the competitive Panhellenic national examinations. Most of the students typically attend such classes (and examinations) at the tutors schools in the afternoon and evening in addition to their normal schooling.