Greece

City	Website	Legal name	Type of Organization
Athens	2gym-diapol-acharn.att.sch.gr	Experimental Intercultural Junior High School of Acharnes	General education (primary level)

The Experimental Intercultural Junior High School of Acharnes is a state school located in the Municipality of Acharnes, in the north suburbs of Athens. Our school was established in 1996, as part of the intercultural and multicultural education policy in Greece. During the first years, the majority of our students were Greeks, whose families lived for almost a century in the former Soviet Union States (Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) and during the 90s had repatriated.

Today the economic and social situation in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean has changed rapidly and that has as a result the immigration of great masses of people in Greece. Since its establishment our school operates according to the Curricula appointed by the Hellenic Ministry of Education, focusing not only on the education of the native Greek students, but also of the children who come from different cultural and ethnical groups, as the coexistence of Greek and foreign children at school distinguishes gradually or discourages xenophobic attitudes.

The staff of our school is composed by 20 teachers and the number of the students is about 220 (classes 7th-9th, age 12-15). The school is distinguished for the realization of innovative activities and practices. Our school has a strong cultural orientation, as well as a way of life based on respect for human dignity and fundamental universal ethical principles, on the joy of effort and participation, on the educational role of good example, a way of life based on mutual understanding. For this reason we participate in several programs such as “Fighting against social exclusion and racial discriminations and the multiculturalism”, that is one of ours priorities.

This program was used as a pilot one by the Hellenic Ministry of Education and the Hellenic Olympic Academy for serving the goals of intercultural education and for having the ambition to inspire and motivate all pupils without discrimination and generally all young people who live in Greece to develop the spirit of cooperation, understanding and peace. Some of our teachers have participated in Comenius and Erasmus programs before. Their experience has been very positive, so they are willing to collaborate on this project. This program will be the next step towards the school’s European dimension.