[Bilimsel Haber] New Article: "The Educational Rights of the Muslim Minority under Greek Law"

[Onur Inal]

Boussiakou, Iris Kalliopi. "The Educational Rights of the Muslim Minority
under Greek Law", Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe
(JEMIE) 6 (1), 2007, 1-25
http://www.ecmi.de/jemie/download/1-2007_Boussiakou.pdf

Abstract

The right of the Muslim minority of Western Thrace to receive education in
the mother tongue is provided by the Treaty of Lausanne and the educational
bilateral agreements-the Educational Agreement (1951) and the Cultural
Protocol (1968)-signed between Greece and Turkey. Due to certain
particularities in the educational system, however, minority students do not
have adequate opportunities to gain knowledge of the Greek or Turkish
language. The major problems the Muslim minority faces in education include:
a mixed system of administration, outdated textbooks, poorly-educated
teaching staff and the absence of an efficient school curriculum. This
article will provide a critical analysis of the existing legislation on
education provided to Muslim students in the minority schools of Western
Thrace. Secondly, an examination will be made of the level and status of
minority education in the light of current international human rights
treaties documents for the protection of minorities. The existing
inadequacies of the educational system will be addressed to provide a series
of effective solutions and recommendations in favour of the advancement and
improvement of education in minority schools. The article will therefore
examine the principle that education needs to be made available and
accessible at all levels to the members of a minority group, and, most
importantly, it needs to adapt to the socio-linguistic and cultural needs of
minority students.