Overloaded schedules
«I can’t talk to you right now,» says Nikolas T., who is 16. «I’m at the private tuition college. I can’t talk later on either, because I have a private lesson.» It’s difficult to find a gap in the schedule of 16-year-old Nikolas T. A pupil in the final year of senior high school, he is preparing feverishly for the panhellenic university entrance exams (he wants to study political science) and that means he is forever on the run. «I go to private tuition college every day for between two and four hours and I have private lessons twice a week,» he told Kathimerini. «From 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. I don’t have a single minute free.» [Nikolas attends a private school where lessons finish at 3 p.m.] His schedule is lighter over the weekend but that doesn’t mean he has any free time. «During the weekend I study,» he says. «I study a lot. It isn’t just my homework, but also the work I have to do for the private tuition college. It’s like going to two schools at the same time.» Nikolas expected that this year would be difficult. «Whatever you do, there’s pressure,» he said. «All of us feel it, without exception.» And, as he says, it affects their whole life. «When you don’t even manage to eat like a normal human being, at some point you collapse,» he says. «And there’s tension that we have to release. Going out one Saturday night isn’t enough.»
