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Refugee Students Attend First Day of Classes at the Intercultural School

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The first bell rang for students around Greece on Monday, including refugees living in the country. As every year, the annual tradition of the blessing of schools and handing out of school books took place. The Athens News Agency was present at the 2nd Intercultural High School of Athens where 140 students from around 25 countries attend school.
Helen from Greece, Galia from Bulgaria and Ilona from Moldova were present watching their three daughters, aged 13, start Year 8. Friends and neighbors, all three girls stood side by side, with their mothers taking pride. “The school is very good and the teachers are excellent,” say the mothers.
“My daughter wasn’t successful in the draw at the experimental school so she came here, and we were totally satisfied from our experience last year and so we don’t mind it that she didn’t get in,” says Galia.
“Mine was weak at mathematics until the end of the year when she nailed it. Each year has three classes, from 15 children each, it’s like private lessons,” says Helen, who explains that teachers treat children the same way regardless of their race and background. “Greek children are a minority, but that doesn’t bother us at all, as all children are the same. The school environment is clean and civilized so the curriculum is covered. What does it matter where everyone is from? We all need education and to learn to be good people.”

Thomas Kremmiotis, the headmaster, explains that the refugees that attend school from the start don’t speak a word of English. “Very soon they learn how to acclimatize themselves. On the first day, they are usually a bit reserved, but from the second day onward, they are already smiling. All of last year’s students managed to integrate and proceed to the next grade. This year we noticed that some children left Greece but the rest are continuing, and there are some new ones,” he says.
He stresses that the school is open to all children, especially refugees that need it so much. The goal is to help them integrate, and sometimes leniency is needed to help. Many of the children come from families staying with another household in the region, whereas unaccompanied minors also attend the school. At the end of September, the kindergarten for refugees is set to start operations. In Greece, there are currently 13 intercultural primary schools, eight high schools and five senior high schools. For a school to be characterized as such, more than 45 percent of the student body need to come from other countries.
 

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