The School in Greece

Introduction: It is easy to answer the question whether the Greek school system is centralized or decentralized. One need only refer to the central curricula and to the fact that there is a single textbook for each discipline. However, it is difficult to describe this centralism clearly enough to permit an outsider to envision everyday school life. I will try to do this by focusing on a primary school [dimotiko] (grades 1 through 6). The school is situated on the outskirts of the city of Ioannina, in northwestern Greece near the Albanian border. What is special about this school is that it has a high percentage of migrant children from neighboring Albania: out of 104, 39 have emigrated, 31 of whom are of Greek minority. The school teaching staff comprises seven teachers, one teacher for the "special class" (I shall return to this later), the school principal, as well as two teachers for English and sports who are hired by the hour. I have chosen this school because it is a good example of how a school in the centralist Greek school system is able to cope with a special problem, that of educating immigrant and migrant children. However, first a few comments on the Greek school system.