Difficulties of students with disabilities in Greek schools

With a letter from the ESMEA to the Minister of Education calls for its intervention in order to achieve the unhindered participation of students with disabilities in education under conditions of safety and dignity, without obstacles and exclusions, as a modern public school must ensure. At the same time, it asks for the inclusion of teachers, E.E.P. and E.V.P. with disabilities or chronic diseases, but also of teachers of E.E.P. and E.V.P. who are parents or legal guardians, spouses, siblings and children of people with severe disabilities, in a special category, with the right of immediate transfer, secondment and final placement in school structures in their place of preference.

The ESMEA conveys the justified indignation and protest of the Panhellenic Federation of Associations of Parents and Guardians of People with Disabilities (P.O.S.G.K.A.meA.) regarding the current situation of the educational system of our country for students with disabilities, calling for drastic changes. The bad situation faced by students with disabilities is recorded both by the Greek Ombudsman, whose findings were published a few days ago and finds shortcomings in the parallel support of students with disabilities and other educational problems, serious understaffing in special auxiliary staff and nurses and inaction of the ministry, as well as by too many press reports with testimonies from parents, teachers and students.
Hundreds of students with disabilities, due to the shortages observed in teachers of HAU, Parallel Support, Integration Departments, and in EDPs to meet their needs, are deprived of their right to a system of inclusive education, with the ultimate goal of forming a participatory society that accepts diversity and respects their individual rights.
The shortages or delays in the placements of educational and other auxiliary staff, lead to discrimination for students with disabilities, due to the delayed start of their studies compared to their peers and / or the inability to cover all school activities by the staff assigned to the educational units. The failure to address and solve these problems results in the non-provision of quality education to students, which must be guaranteed to them by the state and state institutions, as required by the UN International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
At the same time, the ESMEA points out the urgent need to resolve the very important issues related to the placements and transfers of E.E.P. and E.V.P. teachers with a disability or chronic disease, as well as teachers, E.E.P. and E.V.P. who are parents or legal guardians, spouses, siblings and children of people with severe disabilities.
As the ESAM has stressed in many of its letters to the Ministry of Education, the gradual abolition of all beneficial provisions that had been provided for, in the context of reasonable adjustments at work, for the difficulties faced by these categories of teachers in their placements in school structures, which protected them so as not to be placed in remote and inaccessible places, by facilitating them in the exercise of their duties in education, in combination with the panspermia of legislative provisions in force today, they have brought enormous problems and difficulties in their professional careers, but also in their family life and daily life and has led them to despair.
Therefore, there is an immediate need for the integration of teachers, E.E.P. and E.V.P. with disabilities or chronic diseases, but also of teachers, E.E.P. and E.V.P. who are parents or legal guardians, spouses, siblings and children of people with severe disabilities, in a special category, with the right of immediate transfer, secondment and final placement in school structures in their place of preference.