Author
According to Article 55 Asylum Code, asylum-seeking children are required to attend primary and secondary school under the public education system under similar conditions as Greek nationals. Also, children from the age of four are also required to attend pre-primary school. Compulsory education includes pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education. Primary education (Dimotiko) lasts six years and lower secondary education (Gymnasio) lasts three years.[1] Children who are applicants of international protection are obliged to attend school and competent authorities are obliged to provide the necessary and adequate means to support and facilitate the relevant procedure. Before the age of 5, children can also attend infant centres (vrefonipiakos stathmos from 6 months old) and child centres (paidikos stathmos – from 2 1/1 years old) run by the municipalities.[2]
The integration takes place under similar conditions to those that apply to Greek citizens. Contrary to the previous provision,[3] the IPA (L 4636/2019) and afterwards Asylum Code does not mention education as a right but as an obligation. Facilitation is provided in case of incomplete documentation, as long as no removal measure against minors or their parents is actually enforced. Access to secondary education shall not be withheld for the sole reason that the child has reached the age of maturity. Registration is to take place no longer than 3 months from the identification of the child, while non-compliance on behalf of the applicants, on account of a potential “unwillingness to be included in the education system” is subject to the reduction of material reception conditions and to the imposition of the administrative sanctions foreseen for Greek citizens to the adult members of the minor’s family.[4]
A Ministerial Decision issued in September 2016, which was replaced in 2017 by Joint Ministerial Decision139654/ΓΔ4 (Β’ 2985/30.08.2017), established a programme of afternoon preparatory classes (Reception School Facilities for Refugee Education – DYEP classes / Δομές Υποδοχής και Εκπαίδευσης Προσφύγων – ΔΥΕΠ) for all school-aged children aged 4 to 15.[5] The programme is implemented in public schools neighbouring camps or places of residence. The organisation, operation, coordination and training program of DYEP classes is supervised by the Refugee Education Management, Coordination and Monitoring Team as defined by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the competent Directorates of the Ministry of Education, the competent Regional Directorates of Education and the competent Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education.[6]
The location and operationalisation of the afternoon preparatory classes is subject to the yearly issuance of a Joint Ministerial Decision (exceptionally a Decision by the Minister of Education and as of 2019 a Decision by the Deputy Minister of Education). Such decisions have been respectively issued for each school year up to the current school year 2023-2024.[7]
Children aged between 6-15 years, living in dispersed urban settings (such as squats, apartments, hotels, and reception centres for asylum seekers and unaccompanied children), may go to schools near their place of residence, to enrol in the morning classes alongside Greek children, at schools that will be identified by the Ministry. This is done with the aim of ensuring a balanced distribution of children across selected schools, as well as across preparatory classes for migrant and refugee children where Greek is taught as a second language.[8]
Although the refugee education programme implemented by the Ministry of Education is highly welcome, the school attendance rate should be reinforced, while special action should be taken in order for children remaining on the islands and in remote camps to be guaranteed access to education. Language is also a barrier for refugee and asylum-seeking children to integrate into school. The creation of reception classes is foreseen by law, but in practice, these classes do not always start on time due to understaffing or to their insufficient number, leading children who do not understand Greek to be practically excluded from the educational system, because they encounter great difficulties to understand the subjects taught. In a Save the Children report published in January 2024, children in Greece stated: “We go every day. But we do not learn because we do not understand a thing. There is no Greek lesson for the moment.” “We stay separate from other children, because we do not yet speak the language.”[9]
According to UNICEF’s Annual Report on Greece for 2023, it was estimated that by October 2023, there were 25,000 refugee and migrant children in Greece, including 7,000 children from Ukraine, while by the end of the year the number of unaccompanied and separated children was 2,000. Moreover, as of the end of 2023, 15,134 refugee and migrant children, including 1,289 children from Ukraine, were enrolled in schools.[10] According to the available data provided by the Ministry of Education, as of 10 January 2024, out of the total 15,134 children enrolled, 14,222 actually attended.[11]
The school year 2022-2023 was marked by positive developments in some areas compared to previous school years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.[12] Notwithstanding, certain actions still need to be undertaken. In particular, during school year 2022-2023 according to the study of Foster Educators[13] on school attendance of 2,173 children from 53 (out of 79) accommodation shelters:
There seems to be an increase of the enrolment rate compared to school years since 2020.[14] In particular, during school year 2022-2023, 1 in 6 children was not enrolled in school, due to different factors, mainly because of the mobility or short stay of children in the accommodation structures, the denial of schools to enroll children because of their arrival in the accommodation facility at the end of the school year (after March), the limited school capacity when the maximum number of students is enrolled and the lack of reception classes (i.e., supportive classes -running in parallel with the regular classes- with the aim to help children who lack the necessary knowledge of Greek to better integrate the regular classes), when the deadline for their creation has passed or when the prescribed minimum number of 7 students is not met.[15]
Moreover, according to the above-mentioned study of Foster Educators, attendance during the school year 2022-2023 decreased compared to the previous year 2021-2022 In general, during school year 2022-2023, about 3/4 of the children enrolled, dropout of school.[16] In particular, in secondary education where the dropout rate is significant, from the children who remain in the accommodation structures, 2 out of 5 drop out of school and of the ones that manage to reach the end of the school year, half are rejected due to absences. Only 1 out of 12 children enrolled in secondary education was promoted to the next class (8.16%) with the other 11 out of 12 children (91.84%) either rejected or dropped out of school.[17] GCR observed that none of the children accommodated in Sindiki structure (camp) in Northern Greece were attending school –even if enrolled- from the beginning of the school year 2023-2024 due to lack of transportation. GCR made an intervention towards the competent authorities and only at the beginning of March 2024 was the issue of transportation finally resolved.
Moreover, according to the study of the Foster Educators, schools’ inability to create an efficient and attractive integration environment for refugee and migrant children, the administrative weaknesses of the accommodation structures, the deficits in personnel, material resources and educational know-how of both schools and accommodation structures and mobility are the main reasons for dropout.[18] In particular, regarding mobility of children and their families from one accommodation place to another (i.e. due to administrative procedures regarding their asylum or due to camps’ closure), a dramatic increase (almost doubled) was observed compared to last year, mainly in the mobility of unaccompanied children.[19]
GCR has also observed -mainly through its intercultural center PYXIDA- that attendance seems to be decreased during the school year 2022-2023, mainly due to the closure of ESTIA accommodation program and the removal of families and their children from the center of Athens and their confinement in camps outside Attica. As a result, children had to start from zero in remote areas under harsh living conditions and with very limited possibilities of accessing school. In their letter to the authorities in May 2023, 32 Refugee Education Coordinators condemned the very poor living conditions of asylum seekers in the accommodation structures in Greece and in the new –prison-like- Closed Controlled Access Centres (CCACs), which are an obstacle to children’s access to public education due to the distance of the structures from schools, thus the drastic limitation of the communication of the children with their peers outside the structure, the impossibility for them to participate in social activities and the suffocating situation for the development and inclusion of children.[20]
Regarding adequate staffing and timely scheduling of reception classes, it seems that the same problems remain, meaning the significant delays and insufficient number of teachers recruited in staffing reception and DYEP classes. In particular, according to the above-mentioned study of Foster Educators, the majority of the supportive reception classes -mainly for Greek language- started in November 2022, with schools even starting reception classes in February, March or even April 2023, with a number of them stopping very early (February or March) due to teacher transfers or placements.[21]
Moreover, regarding the inclusiveness of education, UNICEF’s project All Children in Education (ACE) continued during the school year 2022-2023; ACE project aims to facilitate the integration of refugee and migrant children in formal education through non-formal education services, such as interpretation services in schools, Greek language courses, psychosocial support for students and teachers’ empowerment. During the school year 2022-2023, ACE programme was provided in up to 38 locations and accommodation facilities.[22]
After the age of 18, asylum seekers and refugees may attend several educational programs run by state or private agencies, NGOs and other organisations, such as schools of Second Chance (for adults who have not completed mandatory education) and centres for Lifelong Learning operate in municipalities. Adult asylum seekers who have graduated from secondary education may participate in examinations to enter Universities or Higher Technological Institution or register in the Institutes of Vocational Training (IEK).[23] Beneficiaries of international protection are treated in the same way as Greek citizens regarding recognition of foreign diplomas, certificates, and evidence of formal qualifications, and if there is inability to provide evidence of such qualifications, the Greek authorities should facilitate the process[24].
Education is linked to the grant of a special residence permit given to UAMs who have reached adulthood, according to the new provision of article 161 para 1c΄ of L 5038/1.4.2023 (Migration Code),[25] which states that: “Third country nationals residing in the country are granted a ten-year residence permit, which grants the right to full access to the labor market, provided that: […] c) are adult third country nationals or stateless persons who entered Greece as unaccompanied minors and have successfully completed at least three (3) classes of secondary education in a Greek school in Greece before reaching the age of twenty-three”. Only evidence of successful completion -and therefore promotion- to the next class are accepted, and not simple attestations of attendance (Circular no 17314 of 12 January 2024).
The link of the grant of a 10-year residence permit to former UAMs whose asylum application was rejected, with the precondition of having successfully completed at least three years of secondary school before the age of twenty-three is problematic, if compared to the current problematic situation regarding education for asylum seeking children in Greece. In particular, as mentioned above, inadequate staffing, reception classes that start – if at all- months after the beginning of the school year, lack of transportation of children to school and accommodation of children (including UAMs) under harsh living conditions (particularly on the islands), are some of the factors that hinder the harmonious integration of UAMs in school and lead to their early dropout. As long as education in Greece is not improved, in the sense of being more “welcoming” towards asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children and if current education system deficiencies are not eliminated, the new provision of the Migration Code (article 161 para 1c΄ of L 5038/1.4.2023) for the grant of a 10-year residence permit will not be applicable and will remain void.
[1] Article 88 of L 4871/2021, which modified article 2 of L 1566/1985.
[2] UNHCR, Help Greece – Access to Education, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yc8rjwrc.
[3] Article 13 L 4540/2018.
[4] Article 55(2) of L 4939/2022.
[5] Joint Ministerial Decision 180647/ΓΔ4/2016, GG 3502/2016/Β/31-10-2016, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/36W3cDn.
[6] Article 1 par. 4 of JMD 139654/ΓΔ4 (Β’ 2985/30.08.2017).
[7] For the current school year, see Ministerial Decision Φ1/83371/ΚΓ/Δ1 (27.7.2023), available in Greek at : https://tinyurl.com/35ncu83n; and Ministerial Decision Φ1/134064/ΚΓ/Δ1 (27.11.2023), available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/44dzsAW, that supplemented Ministerial Decision Φ1/83371/ΚΓ/Δ1 (27.7.2023).
[8] Refugee Info Greece, School program for kids 6 to 15, last updated on 28 March 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/3xUbn6o.
[9] Save the Children, Hope and Harm: Children’s Experiences of Seeking Safety in Europe, January 2024, p. 21, available at: https://tinyurl.com/r2d2whe2.
[10] UNICEF, Country Office Annual Report 2023 – Greece, p. 2, available at: https://bit.ly/4baeZiL.
[11] Information provided by the Ministry of Education on 27 February 2024.
[12] For more on the school years of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, see AIDA – Country Report: Greece, 2022 Update, June 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/3PUOVk9, p. 187 et.seq.
[13] FOSTER EDUCATORS, School attendance of unaccompanied refugee minors during the 2022-23 school year, December 2023, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/2k5xepn2.
[14] Ibid. p.18.
[15] Ibid. pp. 17-18.
[16] Ibid, pp. 38-39.
[17] Ibid, p. 15.
[18] Ibid. pp. 38-39.
[19] Ibid. pp. 26, 51-52.
[20] Alfavita, Εκπαίδευση προσφυγόπουλων: SOS από Συντονιστές εκπαίδευσης για κλειστές δομές – ‘ανοικτές φυλακές’, 15 May 2023, available at: https://bit.ly/4aR2vgh.
[21] FOSTER EDUCATORS, School attendance of unaccompanied refugee minors during the 2022-23 school year (in greek –Η σχολική φοίτηση των ασυνόδευτων ανήλικων προσφύγων κατά το σχολικό έτος 2022-23), December 2023, p. 46, available in Greek at: https://tinyurl.com/4nr9cy94.
[22] UNICEF, Country Office Annual Report 2023 – Greece, p. 3, available at: https://bit.ly/4baeZiL.
[23] UNHCR, Help Greece – Access to Education, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yc8rjwrc.
[24] Ibid.
[25] L 5038/2023 enters into force the 31 March 2024, except for –among others- paragraph 1c of article 161, which enters into force on 1st April 2023 (according to article 179 para 2c). For the application of said provision of article 1c of the Migration Code and the required documents relative is article 1 para Z4 of JMD 30825/2014, as amended by JMD 378422/16.8.2023. In reality, the application of the provision for the 10-year residence permit was not functional at least until the beginning of 2024 due to different obstacles (administrative deficiencies of the online system of MoMA, issuance of explanatory circulars). It remains to be seen how this new provision will be applied in practice.