Greece Closes 75 Schools as Falling Enrolment Empties Remote Island Classrooms

Greece shut down 75 schools this year due to declining student numbers, with the impact starkly visible on the remote island of Kalamos. There, Chryssa Ntalaka teaches the island's last remaining school, which now has only two sixth-grade students. On September 23, those two pupils sat at Ntalaka's table beneath the whiteboard, surrounded by rows of empty desks and benches. When they move to middle school on the Greek mainland next year, the Kalamos school will be mothballed. The nearby kindergarten has already been closed for three years, yet its shelves still hold toys and picture books. Ntalaka noted that while teachers typically are assigned to such islands unwillingly, Kalamos has educators who wish to come but cannot because there are no children. The school closures and the situation on Kalamos illustrate a broader demographic crisis affecting education across Europe.