Minister Tekin's statement on the 'interview' debate: 'If I were to do it based on KPSS scores'

The 2025 budget for the Ministry of National Education, as well as the 2025 Central Government Budget Law Proposals and the 2023 Central Government Final Account Law Proposals for the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), the Higher Education Quality Council, the Measurement, Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM), and universities, along with the 2023 Court of Accounts report, were discussed at the TBMM Planning and Budget Committee, chaired by AKP Samsun Deputy Mehmet Muş.

Following the budget discussions, Minister Tekin responded to questions posed by the deputies on the committee.

Stating that he had noted down the expressions used by opposition deputies against him during the budget talks, such as 'disgrace, hypocrisy, misery, authoritarian regime, and Minister acting on instructions,' Tekin said, "We are also affected by such expressions here and may have naturally reacted. Therefore, if there are colleagues to whom we responded disproportionately, I apologize to them, but these are not normal expressions."

"LET THE CHP MEMBERS EVALUATE THE INTERVIEWS FIRST"

Noting that criticisms regarding interviews were also raised during the budget talks, Tekin said, "I accept it. I said, 'I care a lot about teaching, and I want to recruit the teachers to whom our citizens will entrust their children through interviews.' I also made the following statement to the public: I am listing the measures we will take in these interview commissions. We have taken measures on many topics, from camera recordings to official minutes. The CHP members are objecting; on one hand, they say they are against interviews. You should first evaluate the interviews conducted by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. If you say, 'Being a firefighter is more important than being a teacher,' I will have nothing to say. This is what I have done regarding the teacher interview process."

Stating that the CHP members are anxious due to their past, Tekin said, "I am a 1994 graduate of the Ankara Faculty of Political Sciences. The first job exam I took immediately after graduation was the written exam for Judicial Judge and Prosecutor Candidacy opened by the Ministry of Justice. At a congress in Istanbul, a CHP Minister of Justice said, 'Should I not have given this position to my organization and instead given it to the nationalists? If what I did is a crime, we will continue to commit crimes.'"

"ACROSS TURKEY, THE PLACEMENTS OF 1,100 PEOPLE OUT OF 60,000 HAVE CHANGED"

Addressing the criticisms that some commissions gave high scores and others gave low scores following the interviews for teacher candidates, Tekin provided the following response:

"I have the reports from all the commissions in my possession. The figures I have are not statistically significant or accurate for analysis when compared to the total figures compiled by 3-5 friends. The issue of Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teaching was discussed. For example, in one commission, 193 people took the interview, and the placement of 3 people changed. In another province, 682 people took it, and the placement of 11 people changed. Across Turkey, out of 60,000 people, the placement of a total of 1,100 people has changed."

When opposition deputies claimed that the placements of 5,000 people had changed, Minister Tekin replied, "That is incorrect; I have the province-based figures."

"IF I WERE TO DO THIS JOB BASED ON KPSS SCORES, I WOULD NOT HAVE CONDUCTED INTERVIEWS AT ALL"

Recalling the Ministry of National Education's Planning and Budget Committee meeting held in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) last year, Minister Tekin said, "We will appoint teachers through interviews, not based on KPSS scores. We fought for this and debated it. Last year, I pledged here that there would be an interview system free of injustice and nepotism. I told you then, 'A system has been established in this country where there is no nepotism in interviews regarding any name provided by anyone.' There are things you say that are true. A teacher in one province received a high score and took the interview. Another teacher says, 'I received a high score, but someone else received a higher one. Therefore, I fell out of the ranking,' but if I were to do this job based on KPSS scores, I would not have conducted interviews at all."

Touching upon the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teaching interviews, Tekin stated, "197 people took the exam in Bursa, and 688 people in Istanbul. In Bursa, 23 people who took the interview fell out of the ranking, while in Istanbul, 51 people fell out of the ranking."

"WE HAVE NO LEGAL BASIS TO SIGN PROTOCOLS WITH SECTS AND CULTS"

Responding to criticisms regarding protocols signed with sects and cults, Minister Tekin said, "Is there a legal entity known as a sect or cult? Since there is no legal entity, as a ministry, I can only sign protocols with real persons or legal entities. We have no legal chance to sign protocols with anyone else. We have around 5,000 such protocols. We have protocols with many different non-governmental organizations whose names I do not wish to list here. We do not look at anything political or ideological when signing protocols with any of them. We only check: Is it a non-governmental organization accepted as legal by the Ministry of Interior's Department of Associations? Is it a foundation approved by the General Directorate of Foundations? Matters beyond that do not concern me. Not a single penny of public funds has been paid to any legal entity in the protocols we have signed with any non-governmental organization, including associations, foundations, or professional organizations."

"THE MINISTRY HOLDS THE RIGHT TO UNILATERALLY TERMINATE PROTOCOLS"

Emphasizing that the ministry holds the right to unilaterally terminate protocols, Minister Tekin said, "If there is a non-governmental organization that acts contrary to the principles written in the protocol, we will cancel our protocol immediately. If the organizations with which we have protocols are to provide training in our schools, who will provide this training, what qualifications those individuals must have, and the content of the training are all defined in our protocol."

"THEY SAY 'I CLEANED ALL THE SCHOOLS,' THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE"

Stating that there are around 65,000 schools in Turkey and about 55,000 permanent cleaning staff, Minister Tekin said, "Since our permanent cleaning staff are not sufficient for the cleaning needs of these schools, we were employing cleaning and security personnel in our ministry every year through an employment type defined by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security as the Community Benefit Program (TYP). During the summer months, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security stated that they would try a different model regarding the employment type under the TYP, in terms of employment types that have developed globally, especially after COVID. We spoke with them about this, and they told us, 'We will introduce a part-time work system, and with this work, we will give you 120,000 positions; they will work 3 days a week.' We reached an agreement with them. We must learn and know which municipality is cleaning how many schools, who they are doing it with, and what kind of materials they are using. The way to do this is as follows: you go to the governorates and say, 'We want to make such a protocol.' If someone comes with an arrogant attitude, saying, 'I have arrived, I will clean the school, let me in,' and my officials let them in, there will be consequences. A metropolitan mayor comes out. We have approximately 2,300 schools. He cleans only 13 of these schools for just one day. Then he goes on screen and says, 'I have cleaned all the schools in Ankara.' This is not acceptable; this is not well-intentioned," he assessed.

"LET CHILDREN LEARN THEIR MOTHER TONGUE, BUT THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN OUR COUNTRY IS TURKISH"

Stating that he agrees with the statements of some opposition deputies regarding children learning their mother tongue, Tekin expressed the following:

"Let children learn their mother tongue, but the official language in our country is Turkish. If our children want to learn a language other than Turkish, our duty as the state is to provide this space for the children. This was achieved under the AK Party government. With a decision taken by our Board of Education and Discipline in 2003, the way was paved for the opening of courses in a special sense. As the Ministry of National Education, we are doing our part."