Pressure and lack of support bother Greek schoolchildren

The findings of a study that many teens in Greece don’t like school may come as no surprise, but the fact that one in three feels “pressured” is cause for concern.

Carried out in 2018 by the University Mental Health Research Institute on 3,863 students from sixth to ninth grade and published on Thursday, the survey found that just 29.2 percent felt they had the support of their peers and just two in five respondents felt the same about their teachers, while 31.8 percent claimed to feel “pressured” by the demands of school.

“These findings dictate the need for policies and interventions that will improve communication and relationships between members of the educational community,” said Athens University professor Anna Kokkevi, who supervised the study.

Being happy at school also declines with age – from 78.4 percent among 11-year-olds to 50 percent among 15-year-olds – according to the study. From 1998 to 2018, meanwhile, the percentage of pupils who do not like school at all nearly doubled from 5.9 to 11.2 percent.