Historical Overview

Establishment of a Publications Committee

In 1956 the Foundation’s Publications Committee was established, comprising two representatives from the Foundation and two from the Council of Vocational Training.

The purpose of this first Committee was to draft curricula for technical courses and to select competent authors to write the textbooks. The first book that the Publications Committee decided to publish was Μαθηματικά για τον Τεχνίτη [Mathematics for the skilled workman].

The writing of the book was commissioned to Nikolaos Kritikos, professor of mathematics at the National Technical University of Athens [NTUA]. Instead of writing an altogether new book, he chose to adapt into Greek the two-volume French textbook by R. Cluzel that was being used by French students in corresponding schools and was well-suited to the Greek curriculum.

In November 1957, at a formal ceremony at the Productivity Centre, this first book published by the Foundation was presented to the then Minister of Industry, Panayiotis Papaligouras, by Marianthi Simou. The Minister stressed the importance of the Foundation’s publishing work and urged the State to broaden and strengthen its cooperation with the Foundation.

Μαθηματικά για τον Τεχνίτη became a classic manual that students used until the abolition of this type of Technical School in 1980!

After the responsibility for technical and vocational education was assumed by the Ministry of Education, and given the Foundation’s previously successful publishing activity, parliament decided to assign the writing and publishing of teaching manuals and supplementary books for technical and vocational schools to the Eugenides Foundation, which would also cover the expenses of this activity.

At the same time, the Publications Committee, which would also include the Director for Vocational and Technical Education of the Ministry of Education, was reinstated.

In 1956 a Publications Committee for merchant marine technical training books was established, with the responsibility to determine which textbooks would be published and their content. This Committee, which is still active today, began its operation in 1966, when the Mercantile Marine Ministry commissioned the Eugenides Foundation to publish educational books for the Merchant Marine Schools.

In July 1972 the Eugenides Foundation signed an agreement with the Manpower Employment Organization [OAED] undertaking the task of writing and publishing textbooks for the use of students attending the Organization’s educational units.

The Foundation also gladly welcomed the proposal from the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Networks to undertake the editing or writing and publication of manuals and questionnaires for prospective drivers and haulage operators. Thus, with a series of ministerial decisions, the Publications Committee was supplemented by four representatives of the Ministry, and the Foundation was charged with writing, editing and publishing of driving theory manuals for licencing drivers of various road transport specialties, questionnaires and texts for driving and highway codes.

Also included in the Eugenides Foundation publications are various publications in collaboration with the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises [SEV], translations of technical manuals, books on such subjects as physics, chemistry and biology and programmes, guidebooks and other printed material for the Planetarium, as well as conference proceedings, seamanship manuals and more.