Author
According to Article 55 of L. 4939/2022, asylum-seeking children are required to attend primary and secondary school under the public education system under similar conditions as Greek nationals. 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. The integration takes place under conditions, analogous to those that apply to Greek citizens. Contrary to the previous provision,[1] IPA (L 4636/2019) and afterwards L 4939/2022 (that replaced L 4636/2019) 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.[2]
A Ministerial Decision issued in September 2016, which was repealed in 2017 by Joint Ministerial Decision139654/ΓΔ4 (Β’ 2985/30.08.2017), established a programme of afternoon preparatory classes (Reception School Facilities for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.[3] 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.[4]
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 2022-2023.[5]
Children aged between 6-15 years, living in dispersed urban settings (such as ESTIA accommodation, 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.[6]
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.
According to UNICEF’s Annual Report on Greece for 2021, it was estimated that by the summer of 2021 there were more than 31,000 refugee and migrant children in Greece, while by the end of the year the number of unaccompanied children was 2,225.[7]
For the school year of 2020-2021, conflicting data provided by the Ministry of Education seem either to highlight a 32.52% decrease in the number of children enrolled or a 12.67% increase in the number of children enrolled to education compared to 2019. Namely, per the response of the Deputy Minister of Education to a Parliamentary question in March 2021,[8] there were 8,637 children enrolled to education, while as per an April 2021 reply of the Ministry to relevant findings of the Greek Ombudsman (see further bellow), there were 14,423 children enrolled to education by 21 February 2021.[9] In both cases, reference is made to the same “My school” database, albeit in the latter case, it is specified that due to reasons inter alia stemming from the mobility of the specific population (e.g. due to change of status or a transfer decision), relevant ‘accurate quantitative data are not guaranteed’.[10]
In either case, the number of children enrolled to education for the school year 2020-2021 remained well below the number of 20,000 school-aged (aged 4-17) children provided in the Ministry’s April 2021 reply.[11] Moreover, because of the lack of available, broken-down data, it remains uncertain whether this number includes all refugee and asylum-seeking children present in Greece at the time of the reply, or if it only regards beneficiaries of international protection, as the reply’s wording (“refugees”) seems to imply. Either way, by the end of 2020, a total of 44,000 refugee and migrant children were estimated to be in Greece,[12] which could indicate an even wider gap between the number of refugee and migrant children present in Greece and the number of those enrolled to education.
Furthermore, in 2020-2021, children’s’ access to education was further challenged by a number of factors, also related to the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to record levels of exclusion of refugee children from the Greek system of education.[13] Particularly in what concerns mainland camps, even though slightly more than 62% of school-aged children living in the camps were formally enrolled to education (6,472 out of 10,431 children), only 14.2% (or 1,483) were actually able to attend it, as per findings of the Greek Ombudsman in March 2021.[14]
As noted by the Ombudsman in March 2021, ‘[t]he number of children [living in] facilities of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum and [in] RICs that are enrolled to school is dramatically far apart from their actual attendance’.[15]
On the Eastern Aegean islands, where children have to remain for prolonged periods under a geographical restriction together with their parents or until an accommodation place is found in the case of unaccompanied children, the vast majority remained without access to formal education during school year 2020-2021 as well. Indicatively, out of a total of 2,090 school-aged children living in the RICs by January 2021, only 178 (8.5%) were enrolled in school, out of whom only 7 (0.3%) had actually been able to attend it, primarily due to being accommodated in the urban fabric, as opposed to the RIC, as pointed out in the findings of the Greek Ombudsman in March 2021.[16]
The school year 2021-2022 was marked by positive developments in some areas compared to school year 2020-2021, but with actions that still need to be undertaken. In particular:
Regarding enrolment, there was a significant improvement compared to previous school year 2020-2021 when school enrolment ranged from 8,637 to 14,423 children out of an estimated 20,000 eligible children. During the 2021-2022 school year, 17.186 children were enrolled. More specifically, 1,817 children were enrolled in Reception School Facilities for Refugee Education (DYEP classes), 10,718 children were enrolled in primary and secondary education schools with reception classes (3,294 children in primary and 1,538 children in secondary education) and 4,651 children in schools without reception classes. The main difficulties in enrolment during the 2021-2022 school year included the limited school capacity in urban areas, the lack of information by school Directors that all children, even the ones without regular residence (i.e. who are not included in the official reception system or are homeless) and children arriving in the middle of the school year, have the right to enrol.[17]
Regarding attendance, there was an improvement in attendance compared to the previous school year (2020-2021) when 7.769 attended (14% attendance in open accommodation centres and less than 1% in Reception and Identification Centres). More precisely 12,285 children attended (75%) out of 17,186 children enrolled during the 2021-2022 school year. The main difficulties of attendance during the 2021-2022 school year included the worsening of living conditions, the restrictions children and their families face in accessing asylum, the fact that refugee and migrant children regularly have to move, often due to the asylum procedure, abrupt changes of children’s legal status with the issuance of final rejections of the asylum claim, all being a common reality. Also the lack of language skills deters children from attending school that has also resulted in dropouts. The change of children’s legal status has led to discontinuation of state support and assistance. Ministerial decisions denying specific groups of people access to food catering, caused families additional stress and unwillingness to put education as their primary focus as they needed their children to help them earn a livelihood. People who have not yet been registered in the reception system, and individuals whose request for asylum has been rejected also struggled with access.[18]
Regarding the transportation of children to school, – a State obligation to provide transport to school for those students who need it and absolutely necessary in the case of refugee and asylum seeking children who mainly live in remote areas in camps, RICs and CCACs – there is a significant improvement compared to the previous school year (2020-2021) when transportation of children to school was not provided or did not work properly and smoothly in many areas of Greece, largely due to issues with transport contracts between the decentralised administrations (Ministry of Interior) and the bus companies.[19] During the 2021-2022 school year, most transportation problems were settled due to the direct cooperation of the Ministry of Education with the Prefectures, the Regional Directorates of Education and schools. The main issues regarding transportation that were registered during the 2021-2022 school year included the lack of escorts on the buses, whose presence for the transportation of younger students is mandatory by law and the unsuccessful tenders and the inflexibility of the State who should provide other means of transportation.[20]
Regarding adequate staffing and timely scheduling of reception classes, compared to the previous school year (2020-2021), where there were significant delays[21] and an insufficient number of teachers recruited in staffing reception and DYEP classes,[22] during the 2021-2022 school year, there was an improvement. More specifically, there were 1,358 teachers recruited for Reception Classes both in primary and secondary schools and 110 school units with DYEP classes with 220 teachers recruited. The main issues regarding staffing and scheduling of reception and DYEP classes during the 2021-2022 school year included the delay in the start of classes and in the placement of teachers (even in the middle of the school year) and the shortage of teachers[23]
Regarding the inclusiveness of education, compared to previous school year (2020-2021) when no specific initiatives for refugee and migrant children were undertaken, there was an improvement during the 2021-2022 school year with a new UNICEF project All Children in Education (ACE)[24], aiming 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. The main barriers to an inclusive education included curricula and school materials that were not adjusted to refugee children and their specific educational needs and teachers not adequately trained on intercultural education.[25]
Despite the positive steps undertaken by the Ministry of Education during the school year 2021-2022, and the announcements made at the beginning of the school year 2022-2023 for an upgraded education system and improved school integration of refugee students, numerous shortcomings remain in school enrolment, attendance, and transportation. At the beginning of the school year 2022-2023, Greek Refugee Education Coordinators reported that a significant number of children with their families have moved within Greece, due to the termination of the ESTIA accommodation programme. This forced students to leave their school and enrol in new schools in other regions, disrupting their education and integration into the school community. Moreover, the new asylum application system introduced on 1 September 2022, is also impeding school enrolment and attendance, as the electronic lodging of the asylum claim does not provide asylum seekers with an official document serving as a proof of their application, rendering children and their families ‘invisible’ to the state until the registration of their asylum claims at one of the competent RICs. Without being able to prove the legality of their residence, children often face difficulties in school enrolment, as an identity document and proof of vaccination booklet are usually requested during enrolment, despite not being a legal requirement. Finally, families’ fear of being deprived of their freedom of movement or arrested, deters parents from approaching public authorities generally, including schools.[26]
[1] Article 13 L 4540/2018.
[2] Article 55(2) of L 4939/2022.
[3] Joint Ministerial Decision 180647/ΓΔ4/2016, GG 3502/2016/Β/31-10-2016, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/36W3cDn.
[4] Article 1 par. 4 of JMD 139654/ΓΔ4 (Β’ 2985/30.08.2017).
[5] For the current school year, see Ministerial Decision Φ1/90023/ΑΔ/Δ1 (Β΄ 4032/29.07.2022).
[6] Ministry of Education, Q&A for access to education for refugee children, 1 February 2017, available at: http://bit.ly/2maIzAv.
[7] UNICEF, Country Office Annual Report 2021 – Greece, available at: https://bit.ly/43e0pDk.
[8] RSA, Excluded and segregated: the vanishing education of refugee children in Greece, 13 April 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3ozTZuY.
[9] Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, ‘Reply with respect to the findings regarding the educational integration of children residing in facilities and RICs of the Ministry of Migration & Asylum’, 21 April 2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3yAoDc1, 3.
[10] Ibid, 2
[11] Ibid, 2.
[12] UNICEF, Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe: Humanitarian Situation Report No. 38, 28 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3fjMjdi, 3.
[13] For more, RSA, Excluded and segregated, op.cit.
[14] Greek Ombudsman, Educational integration of children living in facilities and RICs of the Ministry of Migration & Asylum, 11 March 2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3ounIWc, 12.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Greek Ombudsman, Educational integration of children living in facilities and RICs of the Ministry of Migration & Asylum, 11 March 2021, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3ounIWc, 9.
[17] Greek Council for Refugees/Save the Children/Terre des hommes, Must do better: Grading the Greek government’s efforts on education for refugee children, July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43tDBPN.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Greek Ombudsman, Εκπαιδευτική ένταξη παιδιών που διαβιούν σε Δομές και ΚΥΤ του Υπουργείου Μετανάστευσης & Ασύλου, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/43u5aIP and Greek Council for Refugees/Save the Children/Terre des hommes, Must do better: Grading the Greek government’s efforts on education for refugee children, July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43tDBPN.
[20] Greek Council for Refugees/Save the Children/Terre des hommes, Must do better: Grading the Greek government’s efforts on education for refugee children, July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43tDBPN.
[21] Greek Ombudsman, Εκπαιδευτική ένταξη παιδιών που διαβιούν σε Δομές και ΚΥΤ του Υπουργείου Μετανάστευσης & Ασύλου, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/43u5aIP.
[22] Greek Council for Refugees / Save the Children, Back to School? Refugee Children in Greece Denied Right to Education, available at: https://bit.ly/43otEn2, 4.
[23] Greek Council for Refugees/Save the Children/Terre des hommes, Must do better: Grading the Greek government’s efforts on education for refugee children, July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43tDBPN.
[24] Launched in September 2021 by UNICEF with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and religious Affairs and the MoMA. UNICEF, press release entitled: ‘’Διαβατήριο‘ για την εκπαίδευση για 8.400 το ελληνικό πρόγραμμα ACE που θα γίνει πρότυπο για εφαρμογή σε όλη την ΕΕ (in Greek), 17 June 2022, available in Greek at: https://bit.ly/3WRcFHG.
[25] Greek Council for Refugees/Save the Children/Terre des hommes, Must do better: Grading the Greek government’s efforts on education for refugee children, July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/43tDBPN.
[26] Greek Council for Refugees / OXFAM / Save the Children International, Greece: Bimonthly bulletin on Refugees and Migrants, October 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3qhEmxb, 12-13.