Psychologists
Research conducted by the Pedagogical Institute has shown that 20 percent of Greek pupils display learning and psychosocial adaptive difficulties. Yet, with the exception of a few private institutions, Greek schools do not employ psychologists, which means that such problems are not diagnosed and dealt with in time. So far there are only 15 Youth Advisory Centers in the entire country, and a draft bill from last year for the establishment of an additional 45 is still outstanding. Rather than appointing psychologists to schools, Nikolaos Mantis, president of the Panhellenic Psychology Association, recommends instituting a school psychology community team run by prefectures or regional authorities that would serve every school in the district. In his book, «Community School Psychology – The Institution,» which deals with problems of integration, adaptation and performance in contemporary Greek schools, Mantis argues that experience shows how psychologists employed at schools get absorbed by school structures and cannot deal effectively with dysfunctional schools and pupils’ problems.