ATHENS – With Greece’s schools still closed during a more than four-month lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, the Senate of Panteion University said education is being affected and wants students in class.

In a statement it said backed student’s calls too, the Senate said the quality of education is being downgraded by remote teaching and said colleges could reopen with sufficient health measures, reported Kathimerini.

It also called for more government support for students who do not have access to online teaching which relies on using computers and other electronic devices to let them tune in, also limiting questions and answers.

With the New Democracy government also adding more security to college campuses that have seen violence and even attacks on teachers and professors – including at Panteion – the Senate nevertheless opposed adding special police.

“The latest violent events we’ve seen in society and at universities, and the police presence in and around universities creates justified worries about the maintenance of academic peace,” it said, without adding how violence could be stopped on school grounds without security.

Greek students are being taught online after classes in schools have gone back-and-forth between being open or closed to deal with the pandemic as cases rise and drop and the government has struggled to deal with it.