Secondary Teachers’ Union: Do not take the Smile of the Child’s children away from their familiar environment
Smile of the Child
16 Dec 2022
/ 21:50
CORFU. We demand that the state intervene immediately so that the children from The Smile of the Child will not be taken away from their school and familiar environment.
Secondary Teachers’ Union (ELME) said that teachers in many Corfu schools are distressed and angry, as the children will be taken away from the facility:
"Our pupils, the children from The Smile of the Child, are forced to leave for the second time in their lives, as our colleagues said. Their life so far in Corfu, their home and school, their classmates and friends, activities and social life are their only reference points. We are surprised with this violent behaviour in the middle of the school year and just before Christmas.
These pupils cannot be victims of cruel political choices once again at an extremely vulnerable age and after the effort they have made, just like all pupils, to return to school following the pandemic and quarantine.
It is obvious that, using as an excuse the negative, exploitative and abusive behaviour against unprotected children, which the state has tolerated for years, the government is preparing to close down the last state welfare facilities for the family and the child. With cunning methods and supposedly stricter specifications for the operation of such facilities, it aims to shrink them.
Already for many years now, with the underfunding and abandonment of child care to many private organisations, churches and non-governmental organisations, the state had been preparing to not take any responsibility for the care of families and children. On the one hand, they abandon the vulnerable groups to poverty, lack of even the most basic necessities, misery and social exclusion, and on the other hand they hypocritically talk about the abusive institutions.
Employees, teachers and conscious citizens will not tolerate a repeat the so-called "deinstitutionalisation" of the mentally ill, which literally threw people out on the street. Children of the abovementioned facilities must not end up hastily to questionable foster homes, nor should they be handed over to private individuals who will use them as workers or as a means of putting pressure for their own ends as if the children belonged to them. The government must finally take responsibility!
We demand that the state intervene immediately so that the children from the Smile of the Child will not be taken away from their school and familiar environment. It is the responsibility of the state facilities and the services belonging to the Region and the Municipalities to find a solution for their accommodation and the continuation of their lives. The same must, of course, be done for all the facilities that are in danger of being closed throughout the country.
No employee should lose their job, they should be recruited in the state facilities to make use of their years of experience.
We call on the Secondary Teachers's Federation (OLME) to take a stand and intervene, because the issues of the child care institutions concern pupils all over Greece.
EDUCATION, HEALTH AND WELFARE ARE SOCIAL GOODS AND WE DEMAND THEM WITHOUT NEGOTIATION"
"Our pupils, the children from The Smile of the Child, are forced to leave for the second time in their lives, as our colleagues said. Their life so far in Corfu, their home and school, their classmates and friends, activities and social life are their only reference points. We are surprised with this violent behaviour in the middle of the school year and just before Christmas.
These pupils cannot be victims of cruel political choices once again at an extremely vulnerable age and after the effort they have made, just like all pupils, to return to school following the pandemic and quarantine.
It is obvious that, using as an excuse the negative, exploitative and abusive behaviour against unprotected children, which the state has tolerated for years, the government is preparing to close down the last state welfare facilities for the family and the child. With cunning methods and supposedly stricter specifications for the operation of such facilities, it aims to shrink them.
Already for many years now, with the underfunding and abandonment of child care to many private organisations, churches and non-governmental organisations, the state had been preparing to not take any responsibility for the care of families and children. On the one hand, they abandon the vulnerable groups to poverty, lack of even the most basic necessities, misery and social exclusion, and on the other hand they hypocritically talk about the abusive institutions.
Employees, teachers and conscious citizens will not tolerate a repeat the so-called "deinstitutionalisation" of the mentally ill, which literally threw people out on the street. Children of the abovementioned facilities must not end up hastily to questionable foster homes, nor should they be handed over to private individuals who will use them as workers or as a means of putting pressure for their own ends as if the children belonged to them. The government must finally take responsibility!
We demand that the state intervene immediately so that the children from the Smile of the Child will not be taken away from their school and familiar environment. It is the responsibility of the state facilities and the services belonging to the Region and the Municipalities to find a solution for their accommodation and the continuation of their lives. The same must, of course, be done for all the facilities that are in danger of being closed throughout the country.
No employee should lose their job, they should be recruited in the state facilities to make use of their years of experience.
We call on the Secondary Teachers's Federation (OLME) to take a stand and intervene, because the issues of the child care institutions concern pupils all over Greece.
EDUCATION, HEALTH AND WELFARE ARE SOCIAL GOODS AND WE DEMAND THEM WITHOUT NEGOTIATION"
