Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-03-08

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] The priority now to create new jobs, PM Tsipras says in Thessaloniki

[02] School competition invites students to build their own seismograph

[03] Greek education system needs flexibility to integrate refugees, says Canadian linguist

[01] The priority now to create new jobs, PM Tsipras says in Thessaloniki

The goal was jobs and for this it was necessary to take measures favouring investments, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

"In some cases we must invent the way. We must think up the tools and means and I think this initiative has this attribute. I should point out that, along with the Western Macedonia Fund, there is the creation of various financing structures - for example guarantee funds, subsidy funds, micro-loan funds and letters of guarantee. Structures that will be focused on the problems and needs of the region's businesses," he said.

The prime minister made the statements in a meeting with Western Macedonia Regional governor Theodoros Karypidis, representatives of local chambers and local administration in the presence of Alternate Economy and Development Minister Alexis Charitsis and Deputy Interior Minister (Macedonia-Thrace) Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha.

He noted that the Western Macedonia Fund was an "experiment" that would be implemented in other regions if it was successful.

The prime minister said the Fund would be set up with a starting capital of 10 million euros, half of which would be contributed by the state via the economy ministry, and the other half by the Western Macedonia Region, and the Kozani and Florina chambers of commerce. The management of the fund will be handled by the Hellenic Fund for Entrepreneurship and Development, he said.

Its aim, according to the prime minister, will be to facilitate access to financing for Greek businesses, especially those that don't meet the criteria for funding via the usual financing instruments, such as EU funds, the developmental law and others, as well as to encourage investments in the area.

Tsipras also remarked on the economy ministry's success in the absorption of National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) funds, saying that this was partly responsible for the "lower-than-expected" growth figures in the last quarter of 2016 that were a surprise to some. According to Tsipras, these funds were pumped into the real economy all together in the last quarter of 2015, at the end of the year, whereas absorption of NSRF funds in 2016 was more uniformly spread out.

"This picture is not as worrying as some would like to present it, at least for those that know the reason that caused it," Tsipras added.

The prime minister also referred to the dialogue that the government intends to launch on the strategic plan for Greece's growth model, which it will present to local government and business associations over the coming period.

"This time we want to try the opposite tack. Instead of starting from the top down, from the tip of the pyramid, to start from the base. We want the national strategic plan to be put together for each region and the total to make up national strategic planning. It is a challenge and a wager. To give local government and local associations a say over the next period, in order to plan the next day for the national economy," Tsipras said.

[02] School competition invites students to build their own seismograph

Teams of students, in collaboration with their teachers, are asked to design and build their own seismographs and to describe the process in a presentation using photographs and other audiovisual aids.

The competition officially opened on March 1 and those interested in taking part are asked to apply to the website http://bit.ly/2jeirPh or send an e-mail to the address diagwnismos@ea.gr.

The competition forms a part of the European programme Erasmus+ "Schools Study Earthquakes" and the European project "Ark of Inquiry". The teams must submit their projects by April 15, for evaluation by a committee of scientists and teachers that will include Greek seismologists Dr. Gerasimos Chouliaras and Dr. George Drakatos.

The committee will create a short-list of the 10 best entries, which will receive prizes at an ceremony to be held at the Geodynamic Institute on May 5. The transport and accommodation costs of the teams will be covered by the two European programmes.

[03] Greek education system needs flexibility to integrate refugees, says Canadian linguist

"Every country chooses what policy to follow to integrate the children of refugees in schools, based on its tradition and priorities," he said, speaking at "Languages, identities and rights in school: on the occasion of Jim Cummins' work".

"But the general direction of linguists is that the sooner these children enter the basic educational curriculum, the better," he added.

Cummins noted however that the fast integration has an important precondition: the system's flexibility. "Integration doesn't just require us to throw children in at the deep end and ask them to swim. There must be some flexibility from the teachers, there must be support for the students to learn the extra language and, ideally, there must be support to learn their maternal language," he explained.

He gave the example of Canada, where schools allocate 2.5 hours for kids to learn their maternal language, outside the regular school hours, in programs funded by the government. There's also support to learn English.

"But this is quite far from the Greek system," he said. "Greece has a much more specific and centrally driven [by the Ministry of education] curriculum, which teachers must follow strictly and so it becomes more difficult to adapt to the needs of pupils coming from another cultural background and may have suffered a trauma. I believe the Greek system should show some flexibility to meet the needs of these children."

Asked what Greece should do to change this system, Cummins said there are several experts in the country who understand Greek reality and could work together to discuss the best steps for the state to take. "It's important that there is knowledge and experience from the systems of other countries but because every country is unique, solutions must be found that will develop in the Greek education system," he said.

Cummins became an Honorary Doctorate of the Department of Education and Education in Early Childhood of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His areas of specialization include literacy and multiliteracies, technology and academic language learning, English as a second language and critical pedagogy.

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