Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer answered questions about the agenda in his live broadcast.
Asked about CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s comments on the fact that 3.5 million students are excluded from education and about vocational high schools, Özer said that under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the number of classrooms in Turkey increased from 300 thousand to 900 thousand in a short period of 20 years. He explained that the antidemocratic practices in front of him and the coefficient that prevents imam hatips and vocational high schools from accessing higher education have been removed.
Pointing out that very comprehensive social policies were implemented to remove the barriers to access to education in this process, Özer stated that the 20-year cost of these social policies reached 525 billion liras.
Explaining that for the first time in the history of the Republic, the schooling rates at all levels have been increased above 99 percent, Özer said, “Currently, the number of students in primary, secondary and high schools, that is, whether they should be in compulsory education or not, is 94 thousand 984. As the Ministry, we cannot bear to lose even one of our children. “While we are trying to bring education to approximately 95 thousand students, Kılıçdaroğlu’s statement that 3.5 million students cannot meet with education is a great slander. This is disrespectful to labor,” he said.
Minister Özer talked about the recent efforts to increase access to pre-school education.
Expressing that with the project carried out under the auspices of President Erdoğan’s wife, Emine Erdoğan, they produced 6,700 new kindergarten capacity in a short period of 1.5 years, Özer said, “As of now, we have an education system with a capacity of 9,482 kindergartens.”
Expressing that they have made the meals in pre-school education free, Özer reminded that they have completely removed the very low fees in pre-school education as of the 2023-2024 academic year.
Minister Özer stated that 3,500 village life centers met with education again.
Referring to issues such as pre-school and village schools included in the election manifestos of the opposition, Özer said, “Declaring what we are doing as a manifesto saying ‘we will do’ means two things. One, they either do not follow the developments. Then if you aspire to govern Turkey, without knowing the future of Turkey. “You cannot rule Turkey. The latter repeats even though they know it, and this is disrespect to labor. Of course, what makes us happy here is that there is nothing that the opposition can produce with the education system. I really enjoy seeing this as the Minister of National Education,” he said.
New scholarship opportunity for students in earthquake area
Minister Özer reminded that in line with the Presidential Decree, the scholarship opportunity of 863 liras, which is given to all students whose parents or guardians died in the provinces affected by the earthquake, continues.
Regarding the new decision they took regarding the exam, Minister Özer made the following statement:
“We will hold our Primary and Secondary Education Institutions Scholarship Exam on September 3, 2023 this year. The quota given by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance for the Scholarship Exam was around 70 thousand every year. We talked to our minister the other day and we increased this number to 100 thousand. The remaining 30 thousand. We will use this thousand capacity only for our students in the earthquake zone. In other words, we will have used an additional 30 thousand scholarship capacity for our students in the earthquake zone for the first time. We strive to benefit not only our children who have lost their mother, father or guardian, but also all our successful students who need this scholarship as much as possible. We’ll spend it.”
Stating that the applications for the Primary and Secondary Education Institutions Scholarship Exam will be held between 29 May and 16 June, Özer said, “The second semester subjects will not be included in the exam. In other words, we will only take our students from the first semester subjects in the Scholarship Exam, just like we did in LGS.” gave.
A new regulation on the guidance teacher norm is on the way
When asked about teacher appointments, Özer stated that many teachers have been appointed in the last 20 years under the leadership of President Erdoğan, and that the number of teachers, which was 500 thousand in the 2000s, reached 1 million 250 thousand.
Stating that a previous statement about the appointment of guidance teachers to schools was evaluated differently, Özer gave the following information on the subject:
“Currently, we have appointed guidance counselors in all our schools where there is a guidance counselor norm. But we are making a new regulation regarding the norm. For example, when there are 300 or more students in primary schools, a guidance counselor norm is established. It is about reducing the number of guidance counselors as much as possible and supporting our children. Hopefully, we will finalize the work this week. I hope we will give the good news to those teachers soon.”