ATHENS – Schools throughout Greece are to open for the first day on Tuesday, as they do every year on September 11. The first day normally ends early, being devoted to a start-of-year assembly, assignment to classes and the distribution of text books, with the school year getting into full swing from Wednesday onward.

Commuters should prepare for busier traffic in the mornings and in the afternoons when schools break up, as school buses and parents shuttling their children to and from school and various after-school activities will add to the traffic burden.

The new school year is set to start with fewer problems than in previous years, according to the education ministry, since the text books are all ready and there are fewer shortages of teachers, following the hiring of an additional 19,480 teachers last week.