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With drums and palettes in hands, and slogans turned into songs, students of music and art schools in Attica held a protest today. About 1,000 students, teachers, school board members, representatives of 18 municipalities, members of opposition parties and parents gathered on Klafthmonos Square in front of the Ministry of the Interior.

To the beat of drums, younger pupils sang that they wanted a bus to drive them to school. A common manifesto of 18 municipalities supported their request, in which they condemned the "inaction of the state in matters related to the smooth learning process in primary and secondary schools." Among their demands is an immediate increase in state aid to education, which has been reduced by half compared to last year.

The main problem seems to be the transportation of pupils because private transport companies refuse to fulfil their agreements before they are paid for past journeys. According to the mayors, if pupils are not provided with transport, "the risk of schools closing and for pupils to lose the entire school year is great."

The father of a pupil at the music school, which is located in the suburb of Pallini, described the daily route of his daughter for GRReporter. "She gets up at 6 am in order to be able to leave by car at 6:40 am. I take her to the bus stop where she gets on a bus to get to the underground. From there, she goes to Pallini station and takes another bus from there to get to Marathonos Avenue, where there is no place for the pupils to walk and cars travel at high speed. From there, she walks around 1.5 km to the school."

As he pointed out, his daughter and her classmates who live far away from the school go that distance twice a day.

The colourful and noisy protesters walked along Stadiou Street to the Ministry of Finance. There was confusion at the entrance when it became clear that only 8 people would be accepted from the at least 20 who intended to enter. Mayors, teachers, parents, pupils and members of left parties were among them.

At the same time, some of the elder protesting pupils threw bottles of water and a few till tapes but their companions quickly reduced them to order. Gradually, the procession climbed up to the sidewalk in front of parliament, where slogans and songs echoed. The protest ended after half an hour.

Earlier, representatives of organizations of disabled and chronically ill people had held a protest in front of the main building of the National Insurance Institute. They shouted slogans against the government and the supervisory Troika and insisted that aid payments for disabled people should not stop until the completion of the census. It is taking place within the context of the cleanup of the registry of bogus blind and other scammers.

Despite the rain, disabled people and their companions held a procession to the Ministry of Employment. Similar protests took place in front of all the 37 centres for disabled people in Greece.