Eğitim-İş President responds to Minister Tekin’s ‘I have to test teachers’ remarks: ‘Teaching is not a profession to be measured by exams or interviews’

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Speaking to 12 punto, Eğitim-İş General President Kadem Özbay stated, “Despite promising to ‘abolish’ it during the May elections, the AKP continues to stand as a major barrier to fairness regarding the interview system it invented.”

Evaluating the interview system introduced for teachers, Özbay said, “A teacher candidate completes 12 years of compulsory schooling, passes the exams they take after serious and rigorous preparation, and chooses teaching. They study at a university for at least 4 years, successfully complete their undergraduate education, and earn their teaching diploma, which is their certificate of expertise. But unfortunately, all of this is not enough. The government and its partners subject this person to the KPSS exam despite the certificate of competence they received from the university, and they can only be accepted as a teacher candidate after passing it. Afterwards, they don't even consider this sufficient and impose an interview as well. This alone is enough to prove that the interview system is an injustice,” he expressed.

Eğitim-İş General President Kadem Özbay continued as follows:

“The interview system has become a process used by the political power as a legitimate and safe tool for staffing within the state structure under the guise of an exam. The point the AKP government has reached in its 22nd year is a place where the salt has rotted and the labor and sweat of the country's citizens are ignored in public recruitment.

As if university education and the diploma received—that is, the certificate of expertise—were not enough for teacher recruitment, even ranking in the KPSS has ceased to be a criterion, and this monstrosity called an interview has become the fundamental determining factor. In the current situation, cronyism and favoritism have evolved into a grave position that people are rightfully rebelling against in public opinion.

Despite promising to ‘abolish’ the interview system it invented during the May elections, the AKP continues to stand as a major barrier to fairness.

The government promised to abolish this system, which it introduced and used for 20 years, during the elections, and by not keeping this promise, it has once again shown how democracy and justice are not goals but tools for it. With the promise that ‘we will conduct interviews like interviews,’ it has also admitted that there was favoritism in the past and that many people's rights were violated, and this was confessed at the ministerial level.

The past has shown that for the political power and its partners, the interview:

* Is used as a mechanism for cronyism.

* Has become a supposedly legal method for reactionary staffing in education, favoritism, and keeping enlightened education workers away from civil service and management.

* Has created a system where labor, merit, and justice are ignored, and obedience, loyalty, and partisanship are prioritized.

When we look at the interview system introduced for teachers, a teacher candidate completes 12 years of compulsory schooling. They pass the exams they take after serious and rigorous preparation and choose teaching. They study at a university for at least 4 years, successfully complete their undergraduate education, and earn their teaching diploma, which is their certificate of expertise. But unfortunately, all of this is not enough. The government and its partners subject this person to the KPSS exam despite the certificate of competence they received from the university, and they can only be accepted as a teacher candidate after passing it. Afterwards, they don't even consider this sufficient and impose an interview as well. This alone is enough to prove that the interview system is an injustice.”

‘EVALUATIONS IN INTERVIEWS ARE MADE ACCORDING TO POLITICAL-IDEOLOGICAL VIEWS’

It has been proven in all recent oral exams that the evaluation in interviews is conducted entirely in accordance with the political-ideological views of the political power. For example, in the contract teacher recruitment interview held a few months after the July 15 coup attempt, candidates were asked to evaluate July 15, and were asked, ‘Who comes to your mind when you say Reis (Chief)?’ According to the Minister of National Education of the time, İsmet Yılmaz, there was no harm in asking the ‘Reis’ question. According to Yılmaz, the candidate ‘could have said Turgut Reis, could have said Piri Reis, or even could have said another reis.’

As Eğitim-İş, we opposed these regulations where the interview system is foreseen and filed countless lawsuits. In some cases, the judiciary has had decisions partially aimed at taking some measures regarding this problem, but unfortunately, it has not been possible to take a holistic stance that would prevent this monstrosity.

‘Teaching is not a profession to be measured by exams or interviews’

One must ask here: A teacher candidate goes through many exams and practices during their university education process, which lasts at least 4 years. In addition to their theoretical education, they are sent to schools during the practice process, and the lessons they teach there are observed and evaluated by both academics at the university and the teachers and students in the classroom they enter. If this person is not qualified to teach, they should not be able to receive their graduation certificate, that is, the certificate of expertise that says they can practice the teaching profession. Moreover, there is also an internship process after being recruited into civil service. There, they are also evaluated by MoNE officials, inspectors, and the school administrators and teachers they work with. Despite all this, according to the statement made by the Minister, it will be measured whether a person can be a teacher or not under camera surveillance in special rooms for 45 minutes. And interviews will be conducted like interviews.

In this case, it means that it could not be measured whether the candidate could be a teacher during the at least 12+4 year education period, and that measurement will be made by the MoNE, which does not have the duty and responsibility of teacher training, through an interview, even though it does not have the authority. This is an insult to the labor of the person who has received their teaching diploma, as well as usurping their rights and ignoring their legal status. It is also a clear insult to universities!

You observe them for at least 4 years, put them through many exams and practices, and give them the ‘can be a teacher’ certificate and diploma, but it is as if you are saying, ‘but you might not have been able to measure it. We decide whether they can be a teacher or not. What you do is a formality; your duty is to stall young people during the education process and keep them as customers where the university is located.’

MANY PROBLEMS…

If we evaluate the interview as a measurement and evaluation method, is there any possibility that something fair will come out of the political power's implementation? Of course not.

When making a plan, one first looks at its feasibility.

They said that the interviews would be held in 30 provinces, meaning tens of thousands of people will have to move to these 30 provinces to take these interviews. On top of the years of effort and psychological exhaustion of teacher candidates, there is also transportation to exam locations, accommodation there, time planning for interviews, and the money that will come out of the pockets of young people whose hope is consumed through the political power's peddling of hope, and many other problems…

Let's assume all of these are overcome.

Who can trust that the scoring will be objective?

For example, there are currently nearly 100 thousand paid teacher recruitments. If we were to think that this exploitation of paid labor would end and all of them would be recruited as permanent staff, as stated in the regulation on contract teacher recruitment published in 2016, 3 times the number, that is, 300 thousand people, would need to be interviewed. Is it possible to conduct a healthy, objective, and truly fair interview with this many people? Of course not.

Let's make a calculation based on the 20 thousand teachers that the political power recruits on average by year.

If there is a quota of 20 thousand, it means 60 thousand people will participate in the interview. A total of 2 million 700 thousand minutes would need to be allocated, at 45 minutes each. If we assume they work 8 hours a day through 5 separate commissions, even if we think they work all week without resting, it means it will take 37.5 days. If we think there will be rest for the commission on weekends, it means it will take at least 2 months. Even though it is impossible, let's say the commission members are very fair; it is not possible for them to listen to this many people and make a truly objective evaluation.

There are many factors that will affect the scoring in the interview.

There are over 100 branches for teaching, and it is not possible to find an expert and competent person from every branch.

For example, will someone whose graduation is mathematics or physical education evaluate a music teacher? This alone is enough to show how problematic it will be in terms of evaluation.

Also, there was a very clear promise from the President before the election; there would be no interviews except for the conditions required by the duty. When combined with the promise of the minister at that time, the interview in teacher recruitment was definitely going to be abolished.

It is very clear that the interview system cannot be used as ‘conditions required by the duty’ in the teaching profession, where tens of thousands of people are recruited and nearly 1 million people are waiting for appointment. Today, teachers with the same duties and responsibilities have been separated as paid, contract, teacher, expert, and head teacher. Education and labor peace have been disrupted. If an evaluation were to be made in such a picture in the teaching profession in the form of conditions required by the duty, there would not be this many paid teacher recruitments. It is actually very clear that the political power, which can put people who cannot pass exams or even do not have a teaching certificate into classes as paid teachers within the scope of need, uses the interview as an elimination system for itself.

‘THERE WOULD BE NO PAID TEACHING…’

If the conditions required by the duty were really taken into account by the government, there would already be no paid teaching. University, then KPSS, and on top of that, the interview is not enough; they can then recruit many of our young people, whom they unfairly eliminate and do not give permanent staff positions to, as paid teachers without health insurance and many rights, below the minimum wage.

In such a management mentality, it is no longer possible to speak of a “Democratic” structure or “Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.”

‘IT HAS TURNED INTO A STATE OF MYSELF’

The Republic of Turkey is a state of law by its establishment; the Republic means belonging to the people, the sovereignty of the people, citizenship, freedom, equality, and fundamental rights. However, unfortunately, our country has now turned into a ‘state of myself.’ This mentality has permeated all institutions of my state as authorization with obedience and loyalty instead of competence and merit.

With the management mentality of ‘myself,’ if contradictory decisions can be made over time according to the changing conjuncture, if it can create its partners and opponents, if it can change them very frequently in line with its usefulness and personal interests, if they can replace each other, then there is no longer any possibility to speak of justice, law, or a state in the classical sense.

Merit is not a favor of the political power; it is a requirement of a properly functioning state mechanism. Democracy, justice, and the rights of public workers are not concepts to be remembered from election to election and then forgotten!

The interview should be abolished in all appointments, especially in teacher and administrator appointments, and merit based on concrete criteria should be taken as a basis at all levels.

As Eğitim-İş, we are the followers of both this demand and the interviews that will be held. We will follow all the work done in the interviews, expose the injustices, and share them with the public.

We will never give up the struggle for justice in education!”

WHAT DID MINISTER TEKIN SAY?

Reminded in a television program he attended that he opposed President Erdoğan’s promise to “abolish the interview” in the general elections, Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin said, “I have to test teachers,” and added, “Currently, our teacher friends take the KPSS exam when they are appointed, and the KPSS exam is an exam consisting of 3 sessions. We are appointing teachers in nearly 130 branches. All 130 branches take 2 exams. General Culture, General Ability… But ÖSYM only conducts a teaching field knowledge exam in addition to 18 branches. There is nothing here where we test the knowledge of the vast majority regarding the field they are appointed to. Am I not obliged to measure the field knowledge of the teacher to be appointed? What we do in the interview is that they entered the KPSS ranking in the tests we mentioned; I say that there is a model currently applied in universities; they make them teach a trial lesson when moving from one university to another. I also say that I want to make our teacher friends teach a trial lesson,” he had expressed.