With the start of the school year, METAdrasi’s interpreters are again ready to cover requests we receive from schools all over Greece, with their contribution being of crucial importance.

A typical example is the case of little N., who started attending this year the first grade of primary school in Attica. The teachers sought our help: The little girl was completely isolated in the classroom. She could not communicate either with the teacher or with her classmates.

From the first time our interpreter was at the school, N. was overjoyed. At last she had found a way to communicate with her teacher. The teacher, for her part, realized that the little girl didn’t even know her name, nor that of her classmates! So they introduced themselves and she heard for the first time the little girl address her by her name.

At the second meeting, the teacher did a recap of the material taught, and it was basically as if the little girl was hearing the lesson for the first time. The whole time in the classroom, she couldn’t understand anything…

By the third meeting, great progress had been made. The little girl had learned to distinguish vowels from consonants and had begun to spell out the text from the book. “P and A, PA” the little girl began to exclaim. “P and I, PI”. Small syllables that brought immense joy to student and teacher alike!

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METAdrasi’s certified interpreters are called upon to facilitate communication among teachers, students and their parents, effectively supporting the integration of children in school. Since 2021 and until today, they have carried out more than 1,000 interpreting sessions in 20 different languages, in 160 schools throughout Greece (Attica, Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus and the islands).

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The programme “All Children in Education” is being implemented in cooperation with the Greek Ministry of Education and with the support of UNICEF.