Most of the country’s schools have been unable to absorb foreign pupils, even though they account for a tenth of schoolchildren, chiefly due to an absence of Greek language lessons on the syllabus, education experts say.

Apart from failing to run regular Greek lessons, most schools use textbooks that reinforce the concept of a monocultural rather than a multicultural society and, as a result, immigrant pupils feel excluded and many drop out of school, according to a study by Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University.

The comprehensive two-year study, conducted on a sample of 4,500 teachers and 16,000 immigrant pupils, found that the 260 secondary schools that hold regular Greek language lessons for their foreign pupils have observed a marked improvement in these children’s academic performance and in their social integration.