Primary school pupils who learn Ancient Greek and its complicated system of stress and aspiration marks at least once a week are less likely to develop dyslexia and learn much faster than their peers, a report said yesterday.

According to Ta Nea daily, the findings follow a three-year experiment involving two groups of primary school children that was conducted by the Open Psychotherapeutic Center and the Institute for Diagnostic Psychology. The one 25-strong group learned Ancient Greek and its spelling system — which was used for Modern Greek and as such taught at schools until the late 1970s — every Saturday.

“There was no other difference between the two groups,” project supervisor Ioannis Tsegos said. “All the children went to state schools and their families shared a similar educational and economic background.”

The children were tested at the beginning of the project and after the end of each year. The results showed that the group which did the extra lessons far surpassed the children who did not in learning skills, and were at a minimal risk of developing dyslexia.