The Greek island of Thymaina is facing the effects of an ageing population. The education ministry said that it was closing down 43 nurseries and 32 primary schools this year due to very low to non-existent student numbers, alongside merging 70 nurseries. Greece last year recorded fewer than 66,000 births compared to more than 107,000 in 2005, with the population estimated to fall by more than a million to 9.2 million by 2050. Thymaina no longer has a nursery, and its high school closed years ago. Thymaina's sole teacher, Konstantinos Fantelas, teaches the two boys everything from Greek to maths, history, religion and music. The two boys are the last primary school children on the far-flung eastern Aegean island, 40 kilometres from the Turkish coast. Greece's downsizing of schools has drawn complaints from neighbouring Turkey, which criticised Athens in July for closing down eight schools catering to the country's Turkish-speaking minority. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has described Greece's demographic problem as a "national danger". His government -- which faces elections next year -- this month promised tax breaks to parents with three children, and extra cash for parents who have more than three.
