Laiklik Meclisi files lawsuit: 'This curriculum is a crime of attempting to overthrow the secular Constitution'

Members of the Laiklik Meclisi who filed the lawsuit made a statement in front of the Council of State before the application. Laiklik Meclisi member Doğan Erkan said, "In a program of over 3 thousand pages, 67 pages are allocated to philosophy, while 572 pages are allocated to religion-themed courses.

All of the chosen words consist of religious concepts and terms. This curriculum is a crime of attempting to overthrow the secular Constitution," he said.

Erkan stated the following:

"Why are we, as the Laiklik Meclisi, filing a lawsuit against this education model? Because this model, as can be understood from its name, represents a regression from the concept of 'national education.' By specifically preferring terms remaining from the Ottoman era, it says, 'we are no longer designing national education, but an education order.'

The program has been prepared with purely sectarian views. For example, in a program of over 3 thousand pages, 67 pages are allocated to philosophy, while 572 pages are allocated to religion-themed courses. All of the chosen words consist of religious concepts and terms. These are a very clear violation of the principle of secularism.

According to the constitutional principle of secularism, it is forbidden to base administrative affairs and state affairs on religious beliefs. This is unacceptable. This curriculum is a crime of attempting to overthrow the secular Constitution.

"All citizens must stand up to fight against this curriculum"

Laiklik Meclisi Spokesperson Umut Kuruç said the following:

"We are against this new curriculum. We will continue to fight for its withdrawal and cancellation, and for the provision of secular, scientific, public, and free education. What they have put forward as a new curriculum is not a self-evident program.

There is a background to this. With the 4+4+4 system, many curriculum changes, and most recently the reactionary practices under the name of the ÇEDES Project, the entry of imams into schools, and a series of practices and moves carried out to completely eliminate children's perceptions, we have finally faced this new curriculum.

Furthermore, while the 'Teaching Profession Law' usurps all the rights of teachers and is a move aimed at eliminating the teaching profession, this law is also an application they have put forward under the name of the 'National Education Academy' to train their own cadres who will feed all religious and reactionary ideological formations to new generations in a way that is compatible with the curriculum we are objecting to today. All parents, all teachers, and all citizens must stand up to fight against this curriculum."