莱夫特里斯·皮塔拉基斯、德雷克·加托普洛斯 卡拉莫斯岛，希腊 —— 克里斯萨·恩塔拉卡的教室已成为一堂生动的“减法课”。
LEFTERIS PITARAKIS, DEREK GATOPOULOS KALAMOS, Greece — Chryssa Ntalaka’s classroom has become an object lesson in subtraction.
这座风景如画的希腊卡拉莫斯岛上最后一所学校的唯一教师，每年秋天面对的学生名单都在缩短。今年，只有两名学生。9月23日，两名六年级学生坐在恩塔拉卡的讲桌前，白板之下，面对着排排空荡荡的课桌和长凳。
The sole teacher in the last school on the idyllic Greek island of Kalamos has a shorter list of students every fall. This year, just two. On Sept. 23, the sixth graders sat at Ntalaka’s table beneath the whiteboard, in front of rows of unused desks and benches.
明年他们前往希腊大陆读初中时，这所学校将被封存。隔壁幼儿园三年前关闭，玩具和绘本至今仍摆在架子上。
When they head to middle school on Greece’s mainland next year, her school will be mothballed. Toys and picture books still sit on shelves in the nearby kindergarten since it was shuttered three years ago.
恩塔拉卡告诉美联社记者：“通常教师被派往这些岛屿都是迫不得已，但据我所知，卡拉莫斯岛既有想来的教师，也有想来的幼儿园教师 —— 就是没有孩子。” 今年希腊入学人数下降，当局关闭了75所学校，并暂停或延长暂停了400多所学校的课程。
“Usually, teachers are placed on these islands against their wishes,” Ntalaka told The Associated Press. “Whereas for Kalamos there are teachers and kindergarten teachers, as far as I know, who want to come — but there are no children.”Falling enrollment across Greece this year prompted authorities to close 75 schools and suspend or extend suspension of classes at more than 400 others.
这种情况正在整个欧洲乃至更广泛地区上演。根据独立机构“世界人口评论”的数据，全球人口最年长的20个国家中有16个在欧洲，尤其是南欧。
It’s a situation playing out across Europe and beyond. The region has 16 of the world’s top 20 oldest nations, particularly in Southern Europe, according to the independent World Population Review.
偏远社区充当了预警系统：山村和小岛是人口衰退恶性循环中最先失去学校和服务的地方。欧盟4000多个岛屿上居住着约1700万人；希腊就有约200个岛屿。
And its remote communities act as an early warning system: Mountain villages and small islands are among the first places where schools and services disappear in a deepening cycle of population decline. Some 17 million people live on more than 4,000 islands across the European Union; Greece has about 200 of them.
雅典人口研究所联合创始人拜伦·科察马尼斯表示：“关闭学校会导致年轻人不留下来，从而离开。离开意味着人口越来越少 —— 出生率越来越低。这意味着人口流失，聚落变成养老院。” 卡拉莫斯岛常住人口仅80人。十年前，当地学校和公立托儿所里还有40个孩子。
“Closing schools leads to young people not staying and to them leaving,” said Byron Kotzamanis, co-founder of the Institute of Demographic Research in Athens. “Leaving means fewer and fewer people — fewer and fewer births. It means depopulation and dead settlements that will become nursing homes.”Kalamos’ year-round population is just 80. A decade ago, it had 40 kids in local schools and public daycare.
“非常美好。我们每天一起玩耍。每天早上都去上（小学）课，”高三学生安东尼斯·艾瓦利奥蒂斯在黎明前的渡轮上说道。
“It was very nice. We played together every day. We went to (primary) school every morning,” Antonis Aivaliotis, a high school senior, said during a ferry ride in the predawn light.
艾瓦利奥蒂斯是卡拉莫斯岛上七名青少年之一，他们如今每天要乘船穿越波涛汹涌的海面去大陆上学。遇到大风天气存在风险时，他们就得缺课。
Aivaliotis is among Kalamos’ seven teenagers who today make a choppy crossing to school on the mainland. They miss class on days strong winds pose a risk.
他曾在恩塔拉卡的班级里读了几年书，当时那是一个容纳不同年龄孩子的单间教室。
He spent several years as a student of Ntalaka’s class, which at the time was a single room with children of all ages.
在偏远学校任教的20年里，恩塔拉卡经常是唯一的教师。其中一半时间是在卡拉莫斯度过的，该岛距离《奥德赛》中奥德修斯的家乡伊萨卡岛不远。她爱上了卡拉莫斯原生态的海滩，这些海滩是游艇游客的磁石。她学会了潜水，成为了一名熟练的鱼叉捕鱼者。但她不得不离开。
Ntalaka has often been the lone teacher during her 20 years at remote schools. Half that time was in Kalamos, located not far from Odysseus’ home island Ithaca in “The Odyssey.”She fell in love with Kalamos’ unspoiled beaches that are a magnet for yacht tourists. She learned to dive and became an accomplished spearfisher. But she’ll have to leave.
只要有两个家庭搬来，她的学校就能继续开办。她和镇官员曾拼命想方设法宣传，但迄今无人问津。
All it would take for her school to remain open would be the arrival of two families. She and town officials have desperately sought to spread the word, but there’s no sign of any comers.
“我们非常热情好客，也在努力尝试。这就是我们想做的事，甚至就是现在——希望有人能听到我们的声音，”恩塔拉卡说。“越快越好。”至于艾瓦利奥蒂斯，他觉得毕业后离开是必然的。
“We’re very welcoming and we’re trying. That’s what we want to do, even right now — for someone to hear us,” Ntalaka said. “The sooner, the better.”As for Aivaliotis, he sees moving away after graduation as an inevitability.
“当然我想留在这里，”他说。“我爱卡拉莫斯。这是我的家。但这里完全没有发展。”人口老龄化的国家都在努力维持岛屿学校的运转，但成效有限。
“Of course I would like to stay here,” he said. “I love Kalamos. It is my home. But there’s no development at all.”Aging countries are struggling to keep their island schools open, with limited success.
克罗地亚总理普连科维奇6月表示，过去10年克罗地亚在岛屿上投资了46亿欧元（约合51亿美元）。这包括新建或扩建20所幼儿园，以及翻新小学和体育馆。其议会1月通过了《岛屿法》，旨在改善岛民生活。克罗地亚偏远小岛的人口下降速度与大陆相似。
Croatia has invested 4.6 billion euros ($5.1 billion) in its islands over the past 10 years, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in June. That includes 20 kindergartens being built or expanded, and renovation of primary schools and sports arenas. Its parliament in January passed an Islands Act aimed at improving life for islanders. The rate of population decline on small, remote Croatian islands is similar to that of the mainland.
日本面临更严峻的人口结构问题。根据最新政府数据，截至2023年的十年间，纳入政府扶持计划的250多个偏远岛屿人口减少了19%，降幅几乎是全国平均水平的两倍。1955年，这些岛屿上居住着近100万人，到2020年仅剩34万人。
Japan faces grimmer demographics. In the decade through 2023, the population of over 250 remote islands covered by a government support program fell 19%, almost double the national rate, according to the most-recent government data. Nearly 1 million people lived on those islands in 1955, and 340,000 by 2020.
这导致负责运营渡轮等交通工具的人手短缺，加剧了偏远岛屿的经济萎缩。日本政府表示，维持岛屿居民对国家安全至关重要，并提供补贴吸引人们从事旅游、渔业等行业。一些岛屿成功招募了外地学生。例如，在偏远的隐岐群岛，一所水产高中的132名学生中，有74名是通过家庭搬迁计划被吸引来的。
This has led to a shortage of people to operate ferries and other transportation, worsening economic contraction on remote islands. Japan’s government says maintaining residents is crucial to national security and has provided subsidies to lure people to work in tourism, fishing and other industries. Some islands have managed to recruit students from elsewhere. On remote Oki Islands, for example, 74 of the 132 students at a fisheries high school were drawn there through family relocation programs.
在由火山顶端形成的意大利斯特龙博利岛上，一所学校上月在关闭20年后重新开学——仅有一名学生。意大利小学通常至少需要15名学生，但偏远岛屿可获豁免，因为学校关闭会加速人口流失。
And on the Italian island of Stromboli, formed by the tip of a volcano, a school reopened last month after 20 years — with a single student. Italian elementary schools normally need at least 15 pupils, but exceptions are granted to remote islands because a school’s closure can accelerate depopulation.
意大利电视台播出的画面显示，6岁的阿伊莎背着一个几乎和她身体一样大的紫色书包，牵着妈妈的手，穿过吉诺斯特拉村狭窄的街道，走进村里的教堂上她的第一堂课。
Images broadcast on Italian television showed 6-year-old Aysha wearing a purple backpack almost as big as her body and holding her mom’s hand as she walked through the narrow streets of Ginostra to her first class inside the village’s local church.
经合组织克里特人口动态中心负责人阿里斯·亚历克桑德鲁表示，希腊人口将从1050万降至2050年低至800万。他在9月21日于雅典举行的人口统计会议间隙表示，年轻人正成为少数群体。
Aris Alexopoulos, head of the OECD’s Crete Center on Population Dynamics, says Greece’s population will fall as low as 8 million, from 10.5 million, by 2050. Young people are becoming a minority, he said on the sidelines of a demographics conference in Athens on Sept. 21.
这一趋势蔓延至整个欧盟：2024年出生婴儿数为355万，约为1964年峰值的一半。其生育率降至每名女性1.34个孩子的历史低点——远低于维持人口稳定所需的2.1水平。希腊属于生育率低于1.25的寥寥几个国家之一。
The trend extends across the EU: 3.55 million babies were born in 2024, roughly half the 1964 peak. Its fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.34 children per woman — well below the 2.1 level needed to maintain a stable population. Greece was among few countries with rates below 1.25.
6月，欧盟宣布将制定一项针对岛屿的战略，旨在解决人口萎缩等问题。
In June, the EU announced it would develop a strategy for islands, aiming to address the problem of shrinking populations, among others.
欧盟委员会区域与城市政策总干事Themis Christophidou在电子邮件中告诉美联社，过去五年里，欧盟花费了1.46亿欧元（约合1.64亿美元）用于现代化四个希腊岛屿群的学校，专门为了应对人口下降。
Themis Christophidou, director-general for regional and urban policy at the European Commission, told AP in an email that the EU has spent 146 million euros ($164 million) over the past five years to modernize schools on four Greek island clusters, specifically to counter demographic decline.
她写道：“流动性是欧洲的优势之一，但人们应该出于选择而离开，绝不能因为忽视或缺乏投资而离开。这始于优质的公共服务，而教育是其核心。”
“Mobility is one of Europe’s strengths, but people should leave by choice, never because of neglect or missing investment,” she wrote. “That starts with quality public services, with education at their heart.”
Gatopoulos在希腊雅典发回报道。
Gatopoulos reported from Athens, Greece.