Feature: It's school time for 10,000 refugee children in Greece

For the last two weeks, 50 refugee children carrying their backpacks would leave from the Elaionas camp in Athens at around 2.00 p.m. to go to the nearby 2nd Tavros elementary school by a chartered bus, as a result of a new refugee schooling program introduced in early October by the Greek Education Ministry.

With a majority of them never having attended school or having been out of school for more than two years, the refugee children have to deal with a new reality in an attempt to integrate into the local society as smoothly as possible.

Of the 60,000 refugees and migrants stranded in Greece since mid-February after the closure of the borders along the Western Balkan route, a total of 20,000 are children from which 8,000 are under five years old, according to Greek authorities.

Greece, which has changed from a country of transit to that of reception, has to deal with a number of challenges including the education of these children.

Earlier, the Greek Ministry of Education designated a committee of 25 academics, teachers and psychologists specialized in cross-cultural, refugee and Roma education to set up a flexible preparatory program that would adapt to the refugee children's needs and in the long run will help them catch up with the lessons in Greek classrooms in case they do not resettle to other European countries.

Approximately 1,000 refugee children from camps across the country were transferred to 16 schools within the first week after the launch of the program, Yannis Pantis, General Secretary of the Greek Education Ministry, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The total number is expected to reach up to 10,000 children aged 6 to 15 years old in 150 schools all over Greece within the next few weeks.

"As time goes by, children will adapt better to the unknown of the school environment, and teachers will also get to know them better. I hope the program could run without any obstacles until the end of the school year," Dimitris Fileles, principal of the 2nd Tavros elementary school which has participated in the program, told Xinhua.

According to the program, which is funded by the European Union (EU) and supported by several organizations and NGOs, the daily four-hour lessons include Greek, a foreign language -- English or German depending on the family's choice, mathematics, computers, art and gym. The lessons are taking place after regular classes for local school children.

Among the main difficulties the Greek Education Ministry faced was the refugee parents' consent. "They did not give their permission easily to transfer their children. They have been through a lot -- war, rough seas. They are afraid of letting their children alone," Pantis explained.

With a formal paper translated in five languages, refugee parents were informed about the procedure and they were asked to give their consent for the participation of their children in the program.

Besides the parents' permission, refugee children participating in the program should have been vaccinated first. "There will be no transfer, if the children do not participate in the immunization program for refugees and migrants of the Health Ministry in the camps," Pantis stressed, clearing out any objections raised by locals regarding health fears.

According to Pantis, there should be no concern as authorities have taken all measures needed. "All objections raised regarding vaccination, cleaning, security and cost issues have been covered," he said.

However, Fileles had to deal with some "isolated incidents" of protests spreading racist attitudes. "The first week was difficult as we had to calm down some concerned parents regarding the introduction of refugees in schools," he told Xinhua. "There were also some procedural issues. But at the end of the week everything was settled and we operated normally."

With debt-wrecked Greece entering the seventh year of deep recession and suspended funding for the national education system, many raised concerns over the burden of cost of the program.

Regarding the financial budget of the program, Pantis explained that the ministry has secured a total of nine million euros (about 9.88 million U.S. dollars) by the International Organization of Migration (IOM) until the end of the school year, covering the costs of transfer and school equipment like backpacks, books and study materials for the children.

An additional seven million euros (about 7.69 million U.S. dollars) from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) of the EU will be distributed for the creation of nursery schools inside the refugee camps.

"For any additional cost relating to security and cleaning services, we are in line with school principals and vice mayors of the regions to set a budget and get an extra fund from the European Commission," Pantis said.

For Fileles, the utmost challenge is to adapt these children to the school regularity.

"We have to remember that these children have de facto experienced abuse. They are "war children". They have survived from bombs ... What could we expect from them? To be calm as the rest of the children at school? With a lot of effort and love from their teachers, these children should integrate into what we call school regularity," Fileles said.

In line with Fileles, Pantis praised the role of pedagogic science and expressed determination to ensure the success of the program.

"The ministry bears great responsibility for the proper development of the program. We have to ensure that there will be no school leakage from these children. Everything needs to be addressed by pedagogical perspective so as not to lose them," Pantis said. Endi