Excluded and Segregated. The vanishing education of refugee children in Greece.
In a report titled “Excluded and Segregated. The vanishing education of refugee children in Greece”, Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) tracks the different levels of barriers to education through the eyes of refugee children, their parents and education professionals across the country.
The report first identifies the absence of a regular detailed publication of official statistics on the number of school-age refugee children present in the country, the number of children enrolled and the number of children actually attending formal education. It highlights problems in the implementation and structure of the dedicated education framework implemented by Greece in 2016, such as the failure of the prompt establishment and staffing of classes and delayed transport arrangements. It then discusses how wider deficiencies in the asylum procedure and reception system of the country have a negative impact on access to education. Xenophobic stances at school, in local and regional level create further difficulties for those children. Lastly, the repercussions of COVID-19 movement restrictions affecting physical access to schools and inaccessible remote learning are discussed.