A local priest has taken on the role of a teacher at the primary school of Matsouki village, in Tzoumerka, Epirus, as the school has been left without a proper teacher for several days now.
Despite the efforts made by Tzoumerka’s local authorities to bring in a new school teacher to the village’s primary school, the long duration of the replenishment process from the central government, has driven the local priest to undertake teaching duties, in order to cover the needs of the young students.
Parents at Matsouki confirm that they are not aware if and when a new teacher will come to the local school and fear that the delay of the notorious ‘Greek bureaucracy’ will have negative effects on their children’s education.
The primary school of Matsouki has only three pupils, and one of them happens to be the local priest’s son; who without hesitation and because of the lack of a teacher, decided to enter the classroom and teach grammar, mathematics and history.
His efforts, of course, are not easy. The priest does not aspire to become a teacher, but only wishes to keep the children in school and in touch with their natural environment for several hours every morning, so that they do not have to be at home and spend all their time unproductively in front of a television set or a computer screen.
Although the priest’s initiative is admirable, it is not the proper solution for the problem. It is moreover, very hard for the young pupils to move to a different school in Pramanta village; which is a 45-minute walk from Matsouki. Especially during the winter, the path to the nearest village is covered with snow and is not accessible.
It is so far unknown when a new school teacher will be finally appointed and events like this revive moments from a distant past, when education was an unapproachable good; available only to a few.
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