O2-08-16 Education Ministry has secured funding for refugee education

Addressing parliament’s education committee, Education Minister Nikos Filis said the refugee issue is the most important matter of this period and that Greek schools must receive refugee children in a paedagogically suitable framework. Filis said there are 22,000 refugee children between one month and 18 years old in Greece, and that in many cases of adolescents between 15-18 years of aged who have experienced war, psychological support will be necessary

Filis said the ministry is in contact with official UN and EU organisations and has secured funding for a flexible, multi-faceted approach.

The overarching aim is to eventually integrate refugee children in regular Greek schools, but before that there will be “reception classes” staffed by the ministry [800 teachers will be hired] and offering a Greek language and culture programme and another foreign language, as most children and their parents want to leave Greece.

Another aim is to bolster refugee children’s knowledge of their mother tongue, whether Farsi or Arabic, with tutoring.

At first refugee childrens’ instruction will begin after the end of the school day, and eventually they will meet up in the schoolyard for play, gymnastics, music, art, and “speaking through body language, which children know well”, Filis said.

Filis said the complex integration process is being handled by the ministry’s academic committee, and there is close cooperation with prefectures and municipalities.

For children in camps that are far from urban centres, at first schools will operate on site, at the camps.

 Foreign refugee funding will help cover the 9.5 million euros needed for the educational transport of children.

The education minister also underlined the need for teaching materials for refugee children, and expressed confidence that the programme will succeed because all necessary preparations are being made and teachers will help, as they did 15-20 years to eradicate racism and neo-fascism from schools.

“The teachers know how to behave toward children with a sense of parity and integrate them in society, and they are responding to the great wave of solidarity, sympathy and love of the Greek people for migrants and their children,” Filis said.