Refugee children are expected to be received into school classrooms Monday, as the government’s plan for their gradual integration into the education system takes effect today in the regions of Attica, Epirus, Thessaloniki and Euboea. However, the program, called “Refugee Education Reception Infrastructures”, has caused the staunch reaction of some groups of parents across the country who object t the initiative. In the 1st primary school of Oreokastro, in Thessaloniki, a group of parents expressed their opposition to the plan by protesting outside the school by delivering intense patriotic speeches and ending their meeting by singing the national anthem and hoisting the Greek flag.

In another incident, a group of parents placed a padlock on the gates of the 8th primary school in Mytilene, Lesvos, in a symbolic protest refusing to allow 5 refugee children to attend.

Reactiing to the parents’ objections, Education Minister Nikos Filis said the Greek society was ready to embrace the refugee children, adding that the views expressed by these groups were a minority and marginal among the Greeks and did not reflect the vast majority of people. “The school timetable will be 4 hours each day and the provides the teaching of the Greek language, a foreign language and a third language depending on the parents’ choice of where they plan to migrate to”. Filis said.