Here are the highlights of Minister Avcı’s speech:

“Opening the path of all women regardless of their dress choice is the biggest revolution of recent times”

“Sometimes, it is good to recall our achievements and what a long way we have covered. You might remember those scenes as well as I remember. I could not forget how a group of people gathered in front of the platform and chanted “Out! Out!” like a chorus in order to protest a female deputy who was elected to serve in the Turkish Parliament with the votes of people. I am sure you did not forget this scene. Let us not forget that moment as there was not only one deputy but a group of deputies who shouted “Out! Out!” On that day, not a female deputy but the will of people were dismissed from the Parliament. Due to this reason, opening the path of all women both in public offices and in education institutions regardless of their dress choice is the biggest revolution of recent times. Thanks to Allah our population is young and due to this reason especially the young people who were born ten to twenty years ago believe that things in Turkey were always going well and everything was running smoothly in the fields of education, health, politics, justice, transportation and urbanization. But it was not… It was not like this in health, education, transportation or in the political system.”

“We will appoint our women to the administrative positions that they deserve in the Ministry of National Education, too”

“We have to mention the weakness or deficiency of the Ministry of National Education. We have total of 81 provincial national education directors and unfortunately only one of these directors is a woman. We balance this figure among school principals; district and branch director positions but women are still a minority in the administrative positions. But there is a reason for this. Barriers which were present in front of the women in the past are reflected today. Unfortunately women educators started the race a little late and now we are working in an effort to speed up this process. Allah willing, we will appoint our women to the administrative positions that they deserve in the Ministry of National Education, too. In addition, more than half of the teachers serving at state schools are women.”

“Seeing the happy tears and thankful impression of women teachers wearing headscarves is the biggest happiness a Minister of National Education could experience”

“One of the most important achievements I would be proud to say when I am asked years later about what I did in active political life would be seeing the happy tears and thankful impression of women teachers wearing headscarves; it is the greatest joy a Minister of National Education could experience. Our teachers who were oppressed during the February 28 process – not only women were dismissed due to their dress choice but also men- in bureaucracy or let us use the recently fashionable impression; teachers who were the subject of mobbing during that period failed to serve their duties as children. Our biggest happiness is allowing them to return to their profession. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister and distinguished deputies for their support to our effort. 2.029 of these teachers are allowed to return to their professions. They are happy, other fellow teachers are happy, students are happy, parents are happy and there is no chaos in Turkey as it was feared in the past.”

“We put a spoke in their wheel”

“I had mentioned that we were going through a very critical U-turn in the (presidential) elections which was held in June. I once more like to remind you that we will face a  with a serious disinformation campaign and black propaganda and we should be prepared for these. Education is among the fields which have been the subject of intense black propaganda and disinformation campaign because, we put a spoke in their wheel. We see a number of news reports and comments in certain media organs, televisions and newspapers in every single day claiming that the Ministry of National Education has collapsed or the system has turned into a scratch board. They have a motive and these are systematic campaigns. If there a crack window in one of our schools, they start publishing news reports with the headlines such as “Desperate situation in education”, “Education has collapsed” or “The Ministry of National Education fails to protect our Children” and an isolated incident is used as a systematic campaign material. However, we see the following when we consider the official figures: No matter which variable you consider; number of schools, number of classrooms, adaptation of education technologies into the national education, on the job training for teachers, number of classrooms per student, mobile education, milk aid, scholarships…, it can be seen that the greatest improvement in the history of Republic in the last 13 years has been achieved in education. No matter which field or indicator you consider, you will see that educational development has doubled in the last 13 years. As they are also aware of this fact, they carry out a black propaganda against our ministry. Due to this reason, I am calling on parents especially women to involve more, to come to schools more often and attend Parent Teacher Meetings in order to learn more about our possible problems in the schools. If you see any defect, please apply to the Provincial Directorates of National Education or school administrations and inform us. Let’s hear from you and let us know about your proposals for solutions”.

“There is a censor motion asking 24 questions and we are proud of every single of these 24 issues”. 

“We have taken important steps in education. Yesterday, a censor motion was submitted at the Parliament against the Minister of National Education. The censor motion includes 24 questions about the actions of the Ministry of National Education and we are proud of every single action concerning these 24 issues. The censor motion is built on wrong and imperfect knowledge including the 4+4+4 formula. I thanked them for the submitting this motion as it would allow us the opportunity to explain our performance once more. You might be surprised to see my thanking them for submitting a censor motion. I sincerely thank them because they gave me this opportunity to talk about the actions of our ministry…”

“550 thousand of 1 million and 57 thousand students are enrolled in one of their first three choices” 

“We used to have a system called as TEOG (Placement Test) in order to determine the education level of students. Students who have completed their secondary education were entering a test and they were placed in high schools according to the results of this test. We all had complaints because students were attending prep courses in order to receive high grades and to become successful in this test. We have abolished this test. Let me remind you that people were complaining that our children are turned into a race horse. We cancelled this examination and did not replace it with another test. Now, questions of one of the routine written examinations in a semester are sent to schools by the Ministry of National Education, students enter this test at their own classrooms, we check their answers and grade the test. Both students and their parents are relieved. According to a survey we conducted, more than 90 percent of students and parents are happy with this new implementation. Number of students enrolled in high schools last year was 1 million and 292, let us simply say it was 1 million and 300 thousand. 1 million and 57 thousand of these 1 million and 300 students are enrolled in one of their 15 choices. More than half of them, 550 thousand of 1 million and 57 thousand students are enrolled in one of their first three choices. This is great success which was not achieved before in the history of the Republic. Despite this fact, we have enrolled the students who would go to private schools to state schools so that they would be able to receive education support from the state. 45 of these students were enrolled in imam-hatip (religious) sections of multi-programmed high schools. This was used a propaganda material and it was claimed that thousands of students were forced to be enrolled in imam-hatip schools. On the other hand, only 54 thousand of students out of 94 thousand students who wanted to be enrolled in imam-hatip schools were registered in one of the imam-hatip schools they prefer. In other words, 54 thousand children’s first choice was imam-hatip schools but only 54 of them were enrolled in one of the imam-hatip schools due to the limited quota. On the one hand, it is claimed that thousands of students were enrolled in imam-hatip schools while parents say “I want my child to study in an imam-hatip school but he cannot be enrolled in one due to limited quota.” You have to see the disinformation here. You can be sure that the most important achievements in national education in the history of the Republic have been recorded in the past 13 years.”

“We primarily share our regulatory schemes with our sparticipants”

“We conduct a survey when we plan a regulatory scheme in the Ministry of National Education. Then, we collect related participants in a meeting to exchange views concerning the issue. Later, we complete our preparations and gather a draft which we publish in the official website of the Ministry of National Education. It stays on the website for 15 days or one month and we consider the feedback. For example, the amendment draft concerning the TEOG test and new implementation in the placement as well as regulation amendment in relation to that can be seen at our website. They hide the fact that this is a draft which is open to the comments of the public opinion and claim that the ministry is amending the overall TEOG system again. No, it is not an overall amendment. Last year, we have experienced some troubles. The state had provided 3 thousand 500 TL for state school students who would be transferred to private schools. Due to this reason, we have enrolled some students by using random sampling method and registered them in to the closest school to their own neighborhood in order to allow these students to benefit from the state support. This year, there will be no need for this implementation but we had to do it last year. Students were making 15 choices last year. Due to the demand of students and parents, students shall make 25 choices this year. But we open the amendment plans to the public, students, teachers, parents and nongovernmental organizations. Now we are collecting the feedback and evaluating every single view. We might miss some points, details. In this light, such views are very useful. Please enter the website of the Ministry of National Education and see the all the drafts. They are at interactive pages, so you can submit your views, criticisms and proposals. We will consider every single one of them.”

“I do not have a Twitter account”

“We have suitable channels in our internet site to convey our messages. I want to use this opportunity to say that I do not have a personal twitter account. If you receive a twitter message from a user using Nabi Avcı name, you must know that it is a fake account. This can be used as a part of a disinformation campaign. Please, disregard them. Our ministry has an official website and official accounts. There is a whole team working on and evaluating these messages.”