The Turkish Minority's problems regarding education continue and are growing steadily more serious. This conflicts not just with the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne, but also with the 1951 Cultural Agreement between Turkey and Greece, and the 1968 Protocol between Turkey and Greece. Deprived of proper teachers, educational materials and modern buildings, the children of the Minority face the bleak alternatives of becoming either undereducated second class citizens of Greece or of going to Turkey for their education and so becoming alienated from their own country and in many cases, losing their citizenship as a result.
There are numerous problems in the field of education some of which are cited below.
Currently, the educational standards of the Turkish Minority schools are lower than the average, mainly due to the excessive interference of the authorities.
The number of the minority schools in Western Thrace is inadequate. There are only 2 minority high schools in the region, one in Komotini, the other in Xanthi. Greek authorities have not yet responded to the Minority’s application to set up new minority schools.
While not allowing the opening of new minority schools, the Greek authorities recently introduced the practice of elective Turkish classes in Greek high schools. Obviously, this policy cannot replace the right to minority education.
Greece’s unilateral decision to reduce the number of Turkish teachers teaching at the minority schools in Western Thrace to 16 (from 35 as stipulated in the Turkish-Greek Culture Protocol of 1968), and the appointment of unskilled teachers, most of whom are graduates of the Minority Teacher Training Academy in Thessaloniki further reduce the standard of education in the region.
Although nine-year primary education is compulsory in Greece, this rule is not applicable to the children of the Turkish Minority. Their compulsory primary education is limited to six years.