New curriculum draft to be announced tomorrow

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin announced that opinions and suggestions regarding the new curriculum, titled "Century of Turkey Education Model," can be shared at the address "https://gorusoneri.meb.gov.tr/".

While answering questions about the new curriculum, Tekin, who once again celebrated the April 23 National Sovereignty and Children's Day for children, touched upon the intensive events prepared by the Ministry for the holiday.

Pointing to the importance of the two symbolic special sessions they held with children at the historic First Parliament yesterday, Tekin stated that the children who reenacted the session on April 23, 1920, showed with excitement that they uphold their ancestors, their elders, and the founding philosophy of the state, and that in the second session titled "April 23, 2071" in the afternoon, the children's outlook on life approximately 50 years from now was revealed.

Drawing attention to the importance of the topics chosen by the children for the future in terms of revealing their expectations, Tekin emphasized that as a Ministry, they should not fall behind these expectations or orientations of the children.

"If we fall behind them, the curriculum and education will have no meaning. We must be able to draw a horizon for our children and develop their visions for the future," said Tekin, underlining that when all these are considered together, the work on the curriculum also shows this orientation.

Upon a question regarding the main focus of the new curriculum work titled "Century of Turkey Education Model," Minister Tekin pointed to the necessity of revising curricula within certain calendars.

Emphasizing that developments in the world and the country, as well as the ease of access to information, make it necessary for the curriculum to be reconsidered in accordance with all these processes worldwide, Tekin assessed, "If you do not do this, you will have neither made progress on the world scale nor will you have kept up with the education of our children in the country."

Minister Tekin used the following expressions in his assessment regarding the main axis of the curriculum work:

"To create an environment where our children can look to the future with more confidence, develop themselves better, and analyze the information they obtain and put their dreams into practice. Based on this, our primary philosophy is to make our education system one that enables them to analyze the information they access by gaining skills rather than just accessing information. Therefore, this is the main axis of the curriculum work. In other words, we want our children to be connected to their essence and values, but also to be able to compete with their counterparts in the world and develop their own dreams. We want children to be able to dream in order to transform the coming century into the 'Century of Turkey.' Therefore, our curriculum is based on these two axes."

Minister Tekin stated that they defined the name of the new curriculum as the "Century of Turkey Education Model" for these reasons, saying, "We have strived to produce an original model by utilizing universal, international models and also incorporating our own values into the system."

Upon being asked about the preparation stages of the curriculum, Minister Tekin explained that the starting point of the work on this subject dates back many years, and that the 2017 curriculum change was the first step of this.

"Therefore, there is a very comprehensive work calendar that started in 2013 and brought us to the texts we have reached today," said Tekin, adding that very long exchanges of views and analyses based on reflections in the public were made, and meetings were held during this process.

Stating that they took all this accumulation as data during the summer months of last year and carried out work to systematize this data, Tekin gave the following information regarding the preparations carried out:

"More than 20 workshops were held just on what kind of curriculum change should be made in this process. Afterwards, the teams formed for each course completed the preparations for the curriculum we will announce by holding hundreds of meetings. In total, during this period, I am not counting the previous part, we have held meetings with more than 1000 teachers and academics since the summer months, and 260 academics and over 700 teacher friends have continuously participated in these meetings. Apart from this, there are additional academics and teachers whose opinions we have consulted. When we think of all of them, over 1000 of our friends worked together. Likewise, all units in the Ministry's central organization declared a mobilization on this issue."

WILL BE SHARED TOMORROW AFTERNOON

Minister Tekin thanked the general directorates, especially Basic Education, Secondary Education, Vocational and Technical Education, and Religious Education, who contributed to the work, and the Board of Education and Discipline, which made intensive efforts in examining the prepared programs.

Stating that they will open the new curriculum to public evaluation, Tekin announced, "Hopefully, we will have shared it with the public tomorrow afternoon."

Touching on the fact that their doors are open to the stakeholders of the Ministry of National Education or anyone who wants to be a stakeholder, Tekin spoke as follows:

"We want to work with everyone. We will have shared with the public as of tomorrow afternoon a study open to everyone, including universities, academics, non-governmental organizations, unions, organizations working in the field of education, politicians, bureaucrats, and anyone who says, 'I want to contribute to the education and training processes of this country.' After sharing it, anyone from the people I just listed who wishes can enter the address 'https://gorusoneri.meb.gov.tr/' and share their opinions and suggestions."

"OUR PLAN IS ONE WEEK"

Upon a question about how long the curriculum will remain suspended, Minister Tekin said, "Our plan is one week. If suggestions and opinions continue to come in intensively, we can extend the period. But since it has been discussed for a long time, I assume that everyone has knowledge and preparation on this subject. We would be happy if they share it with us within this period. If the exchange of views continues intensively, we are in a position to extend the period. Our plan is currently a one-week suspension period. At the end of the week, we will have revised and approved the model for implementation by our Board of Education and Discipline in line with the final criticisms, opinions, suggestions, and shares."

Minister Yusuf Tekin stated that the curriculum change is a final text as a result of a 10-year gradual development, saying, "This should not be perceived as a very comprehensive change made today. This is a point reached gradually as a result of a process. Each of the gradual changes made in previous years is actually an element that feeds and completes this process. All these changes will be the comprehensive change built upon it, and the final point will be placed."

Stating that they held meetings many times regarding the curriculum work and adopted a "participatory" approach in the content, philosophy, and construction process, Tekin pointed out that in this context, there are features of knowing one's past well, internalizing it, possessing the world's values, and being able to compete with the world, and spoke as follows:

"Undoubtedly, there will be criticisms and suggestions on this subject in the public. The subject of education is not a subject on which people can easily agree. Since the date I became minister, even among the groups that visited me, there are issues on which they oppose each other and cannot agree. As such, there may be those who object to the text we prepared, and there may be criticisms. I find these very natural. Because education is such a field. This actually enriches education. I am not saying this as a criticism. We are trying to produce a social benefit by absorbing all these thoughts. The social common denominator we produce is actually built on the minimum common grounds that all these views can agree on. When I look at it that way, I am happy. Hopefully, it will be auspicious for our children."

Minister Tekin announced that the new curriculum will be implemented gradually starting from the next academic year.

Expressing that they do not want different grievances to arise if the new curriculum, which is a comprehensive revision, is passed to all levels of education and all grade levels, Tekin said, "The program we have prepared will be implemented in the first grade of each level. We will start implementing our new program as of next September in preschool, first grade of primary school, fifth grade of secondary school, and ninth grade of high school, which have 4 grade levels."

Stating that the Board of Education and Discipline did not accept textbook applications this year regarding the grades where the gradual transition will be made, Tekin said, "The books for these grades are written directly by the relevant general directorates. In other words, this is the natural point of a process we started as of this September."

Upon a question about the common perspective in the curriculum, Minister Tekin stated that they will share the technical details of the curriculum to be suspended at the launch meeting.

Minister Tekin, who was asked about the innovations regarding literacy in the curriculum, explained the subject in the curriculum prepared with a holistic perspective as follows:

"We have determined 9 types of literacy: information literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, visual literacy, cultural literacy, citizenship literacy, data literacy, sustainability literacy, and art literacy. Actually, what we mean here is that our children already have enough resources regarding access to information, but we want to give our children skills in terms of reading the information they have acquired correctly. The basic philosophy of the event is already here."

Upon the question, "You are moving from a knowledge-based system to a skill-based system with the new curriculum. How do you evaluate this?" Minister Tekin explained that when the curriculum is compared with systems such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) implemented by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a serious problem is encountered.

Stating that they saw that the curriculum was nearly 2 times heavier than its counterparts in the comparisons they made on a country basis in many subjects, Tekin said, "I find this natural. Because in periods when access to information was difficult, these were all placed in the curriculum by saying 'let children also access this information.' However, over time, while these countries were revising their curricula, they reduced and diluted them by acting on the ease of obtaining information. When we looked at our last meeting, we compared it with Japan and England, and we determined that the learning outcomes in our country were 50 percent more. This leads us to the result that our children cannot healthily acquire the gains we want them to acquire."

Minister Tekin stated that the heavy nature of the curriculum creates difficulties in reaching the result, and said that they also face criticisms in the public such as "children could not learn this subject."

Emphasizing that whatever is taught in the world is in the curriculum, and that transferring the rest to the advanced education processes such as associate degree, undergraduate, and graduate education also means dilution, Tekin noted that this is not suitable for children's abilities to acquire academic knowledge.

Stating that he received opinions in monthly routine teachers' room meetings that weekly course hours should be increased in order to catch up with the curriculum, Tekin said, "When we put these on top of each other, there should be an average of 60-70 hours of weekly course load. Now, since this is not possible, the thing to be done is clear. In this sense, we have also subjected our curriculum and programs to a serious dilution process. There is no point in removing repeated information, repeating the same subjects 3-4 times or more within 12 years of compulsory education. Secondly, there is no point in sharing with our children information that they may have difficulty in taking above their academic competencies or academic positions. That also becomes unnecessary. Considering all these, we have entered into a 35 percent dilution in the curriculum."

Stating that there will be no decrease in weekly course hours with the new curriculum, Tekin said, "For now, we have only focused on revising our programs in a way that they can turn the information they have acquired into skills rather than just acquiring information."

To the question about how teachers will implement the new program, Minister Tekin answered, "Our Teacher Training and Development Directorate, relevant education and training departments, and our Board of Education and Discipline are creating a calendar for our teacher friends to be subjected to the in-service training process, starting from the moment we complete the final approval process of the programs. The moment the programs are approved, the calendar will come to life, and from now until September, we will have started a very serious in-service training process for our teacher friends in this sense regarding the logic, philosophy, and implementation of the new program."

Minister Tekin stated that new areas and workshops will be planned for the implementation of the curriculum's implementation programs in schools, and that they will make the implementation areas a little more weighted in new school plans, saying, "Hopefully, this process will be completed within a few years, and our children will also have application workshops and application areas where they can apply the theoretical knowledge they have acquired in lessons."