Members of the Greek-Armenian community and Greece’s Deputy Minister for Education and Religious Affairs Tasus Guragis discussed issues on granting salaries from the state budget to teachers at Armenian schools and other issues facing schools.

In an interview with “Armenpress”, the members of the community said Guragis had emphasized that the ministry was willing to take care of the Armenian schools’ needs, but the economic crisis has led to the reduction of the number of teachers and the ministry is now in a difficult situation. The deputy minister stressed that thousands of teachers haven’t been paid yet due to the ongoing Greece-EU negotiations, and the issue is hanging from thin air.

The sides decided to contact each other so that they would solve the issue before the start of the new academic year. On July 4, “Armenpress” had presented the Greek-Armenian community’s concern that Greece’s economic issues might lead to reduction of funding to be allocated to Armenian schools as well. For decades, Armenian language teachers had received their salaries from the Greek government, thanks to which Armenian schools of Greece had kept their doors open and had helped teach Greek-Armenian children Armenian. Currently, due to the reductions in the country, the community fears that the government might also cut funding for Armenian teachers.