Minister Avcı made statements concerning claims that education has been turned into a scratch board, Turkish schools abroad and transformation of prep schools during his interview with journalist Elif Çakır.

Referring to the question about the symposium Minister Avcı attended, he said that the main theme of the symposium held by Union of Private Schools in Antalya was the teacher of future. Highlights of Minister Avcı’s statements in the news program are as follows:

“Even if some circles name it scratch board, we will continue to do required amendments”

 “We are being accused of turning the education system into a scratch board when we make some changes in our system in an effort to keep pace with the developments in the World. However, it is the same in the whole World, things go through change throughout the World. Turkey has to keep pace with these developments. Even if some circles name it a scratch board, we will continue to do the necessary amendments. Because we have to take measures required to prepare our children to the future in the best way possible. I wanted to underline this fact but as you also mentioned especially the parallel media (media controlled by the Gülen movement) reported my statements saying as the Minister of National Education had confessed that they had turned the education into a scratch board. It is ethically wrong as well as being a shame to quote a word out of its context and distort it.

“There was a rumor that the Constitutional Court would halt the transformation process of prep schools”

“What do we want? We are developing an incentive in order to allow these prep schools to transform into either a kindergarten, or secondary school or a different kind of course. There was a belief that so many prep schools having different concepts might not be able to apply in the first phase; they started rumors that the Constitutional Court would cancel and halt the transformation process of prep schools. It didn’t work out. Here, I would like to thank the Union of Private Schools as their approach was very constructive and made very constructive proposals during our negotiations during the recent symposium.

 “Transformation demands will gradually increase in July and August”

“Pursuant to the law, they can continue course activities until September 1, 2015. The ultimate increase shall begin after this period. They will either participate in the transformation process or they will shut their doors. Therefore, in the light of this fact, Transformation demands will gradually increase in July and August. Those who refuse to involve in the transformation process, shall not be allowed to continue their activities under the name of prep schools. It is clear in the law, it is forbidden to open a course aiming at preparing students for a higher education. Therefore, it is clearly stated by the law that regardless of its title, any education institution preparing students for higher school examinations is forbidden.

You have to recognize the authority of the Ministry of National Education when you open an education institution, this was how they opened the prep schools, now this authority sets new rules about their activities and tells them that they can transform into a private school, kindergarten, primary school, language course or vocational course. So, there is no violation.”

Turkish schools abroad…

“There are other Turkish schools opened abroad other than the ones established by associations, foundations, companies linked with the parallel structure. When you ask if this project includes all schools abroad, I will leave the answer to the question on how that media circles will cover this news report to your journalistic instincts. You might read from their newspapers that not only our schools but all schools affiliated to other communities, foundations and associations shall be closed down.

There are a total of approximately 2 thousand schools abroad. They show variety according to the systems of the countries. Let me give an example; it is not possible for a foreign foundation or association to open a university in Turkey with only foreign capital. According to our legal system, it is possible for foreign investors to open private schools in Turkey. Like this, every country has different regulations on the field of education. Due to this reason, construction of schools shows different characteristics in every other country.”

“Getting involved in relations aimed at acting in the favor of another country under the banner of an education institution cannot be acceptable…”

“Mr. President during his speech in Africa said that Ethiopian authorities told him that they have allowed the opening of schools in their country due their confidence in him and based on his guarantee and they asked him to close them down if he withdrew his reference or reconstruct them in the most suitable way. Starting from late Özal, many of our government authorities, bureaucrats and even embassies were asked to support educational activities in these countries. But this demand was only limited to educational activities and certainly did not cause distress like you did in Turkey or forming organizations in these countries and penetrating into their bureaucracy and inferring in their politics. This was not the intention of late Özal, Mr. President, former Mr. President Abdullah Gül, our Prime Ministers or our other ministers. Their real intention was to support these countries in their educational activities, let them learn Turkish, learn real facts about Turkey and raise their children with good educational opportunities. But involving in relations aiming at acting in the favor of another country under the banner of an education institution cannot be acceptable or approved by either our government or local authorities of these countries. After what has been and done in Turkey and receiving information from local authorities of these countries that similar incidents are under preparation in their countries as well, Turkey does want to take such a responsibility.”

“We are focusing on forming a foundation”

“The regulation and structure we wish to form within the framework of this regulation is setting up a foundation like the ones we have seen abroad. We see that many of them such as the Americans, the Germans and the French formed civil establishments like foundations which are more flexible  and  local institutions allowing them to act according to the legal regulations of different countries.  In this light, we are concentrating on forming a flexible civil organization under the auspicious of the state, of course, which will be suitable to fulfill the requirements of different countries located in different parts of the World. We have foreseen such a formation during our presentation at the Cabinet and now we are expecting our friends in the Cabinet to share their views on our project next week.

Teachers who were victims of February 28

“We have initiated a number of measures in an effort to provide relief to the February 28 (military intervention in 1997 against the Erbakan government) victims. There are various kinds of victims for example teachers. There are some who had passed the teacher candidate exams and there are some teachers who had been appointed but were not allowed to take up their duties. They were told that they were not allowed to teach if they did not obey the dress code. This was mobbing in today’s idiom, it was intimidation and pressure… People were oppressed and forced to resign or accepted as if they had resigned and they were not allowed in the schools and later they were treated as if they did not show up… We provided the required compensation according to the legal status of their situation. 

“We have lifted the 40 year age barrier…”

“We have lifted the 40 year age barrier during the appointments of 15 thousand teachers by considering the situation of these victims. Some of these victims are today above 40 years old; that would cause another violation of the existing rules. Due to this reason, we have lifted this barrier with a minor amendment before the last teacher appointments. Now, they can apply for their appointment if they have entered the Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS) and received the required grade. There is nothing we can do for those who did not have KPSS scores for now as the issue is open to violation of the rules. We are following every track that will show us that the mentioned person had applied to the ministry but his appointment right was violated. But when we could not find a trace of their past status or when these persons failed to present us a document proving the violation of their rights, what can we do?”

“1 million and 57 thousands students were placed in one of the 15 schools of their choice or one of the four different school type choices according to their own preference.”

“It is claimed that we are forcing children to enroll in Imam-Hatip (Religious) schools. I wonder what the basis for these claims is. For example, there were claims that the grandson of the Chief Rabbi has enrolled in the İmam-Hatip section of the multi-programmed Şile High School. And there are others, too. The daughter of a certain newspaper owner reportedly was also enrolled in the imam-hatip section of the multi programmed high school in Şile. Again, a student of Armenian origin was reportedly enrolled in another imam-hatip school and this school was in Sivas although this student was living in Kayseri. We have investigated every single example. When we first heard these, we had wondered and investigated to see if there was something wrong in the program. Do you want to know what we found? This system works as follows: there is e-school system for the placement grades of students. Their Transition from Primary to Secondary Education (TEOG) scores plus their grades from the previous years and in addition to their school success records are recorded as their placement grade and children knew their placement grades as well as which schools accepted which grades for the final acceptance in the previous years. When they enter this data into the e-school system, they are asked to pick 15 schools from the List A and another 15 schools according to their preference. Students are required to review the demanded scores of any school in any city and will then make their choices with the help of their parents and of course their teachers…

When a student cannot be placed in one of the 15 schools from the list A or one of the 15 schools of their choice, then there is a List B. We listed the types of schools in the List B. We have six types of schools. These are social science, science, Anatolian, Anatolian imam-hatip, Anatolian vocational high schools and multi-programmed schools. What does multi-programmed high-school mean? There is imam-hatip, Anatolian high-school and vocational school sections in these schools. These are the types of our schools. Students have to choose 4 among these 6 types so students should not check the two types of schools they do not want to enroll. If the student cannot be placed in one of his or her own choice, then the ministry places the student to the nearest one of the schools categorized under the school type of their choice.”

“Of course, we try to place them to the school located close to their residence, if it is not possible, then surrounding schools are checked. 1 million and 57 thousands of students out of 1 million and 300 thousand students made their choice. We wonder why 200 thousands of students did not complete this procedure. Majority of them have already finished a private elementary school and they are going to continue their education in the secondary school section of that private school. In other words, they did not make their choice as they were not going to go to one of the state schools. As you see, there is no problem in the system. Those who are placed by the state are placed according to their own preference, those who failed to get the scores required to be placed in the school of their preference are placed in the nearest available school according to their choices they made in the List B. In case of not finding a suitable school close to the residence of the student or the children is placed in a school far away, and then he can apply to the transfer commission located in the district. These students can submit a petition providing their grades, addresses, their present school and demand their transfer to a school close their address. 1 million and 57 thousands students were placed in one of their 15 school of their choices or one of the four different school type choices according to their own preference. Those who were not satisfied in one of the four schools of their choice were transferred to other schools by the provincial placement commissions.

More than half of this 1 million and 57 thousands students who were placed one of their 15 schools of their choices were enrolled in one of their first three choices. This is a great success.”

“40 thousand students were not placed in the imam-hatip schools although it was their first choice.”

“The number of students whose first choice among total of their 15 choices was imam-hatip schools, Anatolian imam-hatip schools were more than 94 thousand. Did we manage to place all these students in imam-hatip schools? Only 54 thousand of them were qualified to be enrolled in imam-hatip schools, meaning that 40 thousand students were not placed in the imam-hatip schools although it was their first choice.

In this light, how is it possible that some students were forced to study in imam-hatip schools while the number of students who wanted to be placed in the imam-hatip schools but did not is more than 40 thousand? Let me explain why all of the 94 thousand students cannot be placed to their first choice of schools. There is a high demand for some imam-hatip schools especially for those which are located in big cities such as İstanbul, Ankara, Konya etc. The quota of Tevfik İleri İmam Hatip School is 300 and 1500 students applied for acceptance. It is the same for the Kartal Anatolian İmam Hatip School. On the other hand there are some newly opened imam-hatip schools. For example, there is newly opened imam-hatip schools and only a few people have known about it. Due to this reason, there is less demand and there is a vacancy in their quota. Majority of these children will be placed in these schools if they are living close to these newly opened schools.

“Students studying in private school can also apply for support”

“This year, there shall not be two different lists. They will make 25 choices instead of 15. I announced today in the symposium held by the Union of Private Schools in Antalya that students studying in private schools can also apply for support, in other words, we are lifting the condition of being transferred from a state school while giving state support for students. They all can apply and if they fulfill the required criteria such as the financial situation of their families, they will receive support from the state. Therefore, students can apply to both private and state schools while making their school choices. We are preparing this implementation in a way that it can be completed before the opening of new school term.”

“Allah willing, we will complete all registry applications before the beginning of new school term”

“One of the problems we faced last year was due to the failure in passing the required law. The law was prepared before the Parliamentary recess but it was rejected by courts. Due to this problem, some of the registration works were completed after the beginning of the new school term. This year, we will complete all procedures concerning registry applications, students’ choices and placement procedures before the beginning of the new schools term and Allah willing, we will not experience the problems we faced last year. Within this framework, we published the draft of foreseen regulation in the web-site of the Ministry of National Education. All related parties can see the draft and share their views, criticism, proposals. We will be glad to consider their views and include the reasonable proposals into our draft.”

“One of every 2 currently employed teachers were appointed during our term”

“In the last decade or in other words during the AK Party period the number of teachers have doubled. One of every 2 currently employed teachers was appointed during our term. This fact is not mentioned publicly. Are there any doubts about teacher appointments? In the past, there were many rumors about suspicious staff appointments. We have been appointing teachers for the last decade but nobody could claim that we are making the appointments of teachers who are our supporters. The appointments are done in the most objective way. We make appointments according the professional quality of the teachers. Teacher appointments rose to its highest number in our term, we have reached the highest number of classrooms in the history of Turkey. All educational indicators have doubled in our term.”