A table with the royal and around five children and two teachers. Beside them, teachers from the 3rd municipal of Kalymnos, who came to represent the school and send a message of support, as well as holidaymakers who have stayed on her island for a while Cherimou along with their own children.

This was the scene of the Holy Sepulcher last Thursday at the Primary School in Pserimos, which is reopening this year after 17 years.

“It was very moving,” Athena Schoinas, the teacher of his car, told RES-EIA.

Pserimos was not an unknown place, as she was originally from Leros, and the previous two years was a deputy in Kalymnos. “Life in Kalymnos is easy, because it has life. I keep my house there. But in winter, life is very different. As far as I know, there are about 25 residents and they are all closed, “he said.

Athena Schoinas had the pleasure of being appointed permanent this year, but her position was a big surprise to her. “At first I was shocked, the feeling was unprecedented when I learned where I would come,” he said.

The initial shock was followed by the joy and awareness that this small island and its inhabitants symbolize something much larger.

“I have two firsts, which have embraced me. So do their families. They are full of appetite to learn and respect the teacher very much, “he said, adding:” Living with them one realizes that they are heroes, holding the island, to have activity and life. The municipality, the state and the state must support the island for it. “

As for her goal for her presence in Pserimos, Athena Schoinas emphasized: “I will do everything to respond to my work, to make children love school, remember me as a beautiful memory, learn about life and their parents remember that I have helped. To put a nice first stone. “

Her job, however, is anything but easy. Winter on an acrimonious, inaccessible island can be very difficult for someone new. “It is difficult to isolate the winter and that is why we make sure we have regular communication with teachers,” Charalambos Psaras, Deputy Regional Director of the South Aegean, told RES-EIA.

As he underlined, durability is the most important skill that a teacher must develop in such a position. “That’s why the service is and will be with teachers to support them,” he said.

For Mr. Psaras, the reopening of elementary school in Pserimos is a “historical event”. “We have five children in the school community right now, 3 in kindergarten and two in elementary school. We hope that people will stay on the island and have high school classes in the future, “he said. As he explained, families see schools open, a doctor coming to the island, and there is a sense of security, that those who have left can return to the island and continue their activity there.

In the Dodecanese, at the moment, there are other inaccessible islands that have a small numerical school population, but a very important presence. In Telendo, a student in elementary school. In Agathonisi there are two children in kindergarten, two in elementary school and three in high school high school. In Karpathos, the Kindergarten and Primary School operates in the Diapani, while in Olympus the Gymnasium with high schools.

“We maintain and keep these schools openly proud,” Mr Psaras stressed. “Where knowledge lights up, it illuminates a future auspicious for communities. This is what we will continue to try. After all, the presence of the President of the Republic in the sanctification of Telinde symbolizes precisely this meaning given by the state. “