Hundreds of students returned to lecture theaters, labs and classrooms on Monday after an academic year of remote education in 2020-2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Several public universities started opening their doors for in-person teaching again after 18 months of online education.
According to kathimerini, Athens University’s schools of philosophy and literature, the universities of Crete, Ioannina and Thessaly, and the National Technical University of Athens were among the institutions that opened a week ahead of the majority of the country’s faculties, which return to class next Monday.
Students and educators need to display a Covid-19 vaccination or valid recovery certificate to be allowed into offices and teaching areas, or must have a negative rapid of PCR test, taken twice a week, up to 48 hours ahead of attendance.
The Education Ministry has earmarked 2.6 million euros for universities to hire monitors for checking certificates at the door of classrooms and lecture theaters, where attendance can often exceed 200 students.
It is also working with the Health Ministry to offer Covid jabs to unvaccinated students and staff on campus.