Have graduation ceremonies been banned? Minister Tekin responds...

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin answered questions from NTV Ankara Representative Ahmet Ergen during a live broadcast.

Minister Tekin responded to criticisms regarding the new curriculum with the following words:

"There are certain references suggested to us by mechanisms that can compete internationally in Turkey. They say, 'Your curriculum is more intensive than the average OECD country's curriculum.' This was a subject of criticism. There were criticisms saying, 'The world has moved to skill-oriented education, you need to move to this as well.' We said we want to make the curriculum changes suggested to us by international organizations. We said whoever can be a reference for us is welcome to come. This is a very open invitation. Non-governmental organizations, academics, whoever there is..."

“I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE OBJECTING TO”

"Then, when we reached the autumn months and saw that our call on this issue did not find a response, we invited them again, underlining it a bit more. A very limited number of people expressed that they wanted to contribute in this sense, and we benefited from them. We defined a 2-week suspension period. Which one is more participatory? People are trying to bill us for their own individual laziness and their hesitation to contribute to us. I do not accept this. I have been inviting you from the beginning; you do not come, you criticize the prepared text. Criticisms are being made outside the boundaries of respect. Around 67 thousand opinions and suggestions were received, and nearly 1.5 million people downloaded the programs. I wonder what those who object are objecting to."

Stating that they are faced with a dilemma, Tekin noted that he is against dilemmas such as "The Ottoman Empire was good, the Republic was bad."

Minister Tekin said, "We want our children to internalize the continuity from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic. We want to provide this education."

"WHY WOULD WE BAN GRADUATION PROMS?"

In response to the question, "Have graduation proms been banned in high schools?", he replied, "Why would we ban graduation proms? We have not banned graduation proms or anything of the sort. We just do not want them to cause additional financial burdens."

News Source: 12punto