Minister Tekin responds to the question 'will the mid-term break be abolished in schools': He points to learning losses

Minister Tekin answered questions during a live broadcast on A Haber. Yusuf Tekin stated that the total number of school days in Turkey is not in a bad position compared to world averages, but that frequent holidays create different problems.

"ADAPTATION TAKES SIGNIFICANT TIME"

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin emphasized that the real problem is not the number of holidays, but the difficulties students face in re-adjusting to school after each break and the learning losses this causes.

Stating that this situation is not unique to Turkey and is a global topic of discussion, he said:

"The issue here is actually not so much these figures, but this: After every break, it takes a significant amount of time for children to re-adapt to the process and warm up to the educational environments again. This is not just for us; it is being discussed all over the world. All over the world, there are many criticisms that these mid-term breaks interrupt learning processes, that disadvantaged students experience learning losses, and that there are adaptation problems in school after the mid-term break."

Minister Tekin also drew attention to the density of the holiday calendar in Turkey, saying that this situation affects younger age groups more:

"When we look roughly, there is Ramadan Feast, Eid al-Adha, October 29 Republic Day, New Year's, semester break, April 23, May 19, May 1, snow days... When we look, there is a holiday for each of them, and after the holiday, there are criticisms that such learning losses occur, especially in basic education age groups, i.e., preschool, primary, and middle school students, and that there are re-adaptation problems."

“LET'S OBSERVE FOR A FEW YEARS”

Minister Yusuf Tekin announced that they have been following the issue since the period when the mid-term break practice first started and that they are in an evaluation process. Tekin stated that they are waiting for data and research from the field for a final decision:

"This issue was also heavily discussed in the first year I became minister. We said upon that; 'We will conduct our research on these issues in the field. Let's observe for a few years, and then we will make an evaluation.' The reason it is on the agenda again these days is the issues following the criticisms and discussions regarding the holiday, especially during the plan and budget process we experienced in recent days. We are conducting our research."

Minister Tekin stated that they value the opinions of teachers, students, and parents in the decision-making processes and shared the details of the large-scale survey conducted last year.

"We had previously established a monitoring and evaluation department within each education department at the Ministry. We are constantly monitoring this with it. Let me say this first; our last survey is not from this year, but in our previous survey, we applied the survey to a total of 177,109 teachers, 139,611 students, and 216,827 parents. We are constantly monitoring this."