Students start uni entry exams, feel strain of crisis

University entrance exams for high school students started on Monday with the paper in Modern Greek as around 100,000 hopefuls prepare to compete for some 76,000 places in higher education.

The examination period starts as prospects for young Greeks appear less rosy than ever with youth unemployment over 50 percent and a deepening recession.

A survey carried out on behalf of the Ombudsman found that the repercussions of the debt crisis are a concern for the overwhelming majority of high school pupils, with 90 percent believing that it will have a serious impact on their lives and one in three reporting that their families are discussing the possibility of at least one member emigrating for work.

The survey, conducted on 1,211 pupils at 22 schools, also found that seven in 10 said they had stopped going to cramming schools, particularly for foreign language lessons, as part of household cutbacks.

Ekathimerini.com