Statement on mid-term break from Minister of National Education Tekin

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin said, "After the 2024 budget is approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), we will determine the number to be allocated to us for appointments in coordination with our Ministry of Treasury and Finance. Then, we will sit down at the Ministry and determine how many teachers we will recruit for which branch."

Tekin answered questions about the agenda during a live broadcast on TRT Haber.

Stating that the events they organized regarding teachers coming from 81 provinces will continue, Tekin thanked all institutions and organizations that supported these events, especially AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Tekin stated that for the first time this year, one teacher who makes a difference in their own place of duty from every district was invited, and that they will organize a symposium titled "A Century of Education Through the Eyes of a Teacher" in December.

Stating that news about exemplary teachers should be brought to the forefront in the media, Tekin said, "We have over 1 million 200 thousand teachers in the public, official, and private sectors. Very beautiful things are happening. Occasionally, minor misunderstandings or things that could be turned into news arise that we try to tolerate within ourselves.

We are also saddened by these, and we try to take precautions, but I say that what one of our teachers or education workers does in a huge family of 1 million 200 thousand people does not represent this entire community."

Tekin explained that they watched the film "Aybüke: I Became a Teacher," which premiered last night, together with President Erdoğan and the family of the martyr teacher Aybüke, and that they were very moved, and continued as follows:

"I was an undersecretary when both teacher Necmettin (Yılmaz) and teacher Aybüke were martyred. When teacher Necmettin was kidnapped, I was on the phone with his family every day until the news of his martyrdom was received. We were in constant communication with our intelligence agencies and security units regarding his health and where he was.

I was also an undersecretary when we received the news of teacher Aybüke's martyrdom. On this occasion, I commemorate with gratitude and mercy our dozens of martyr teachers whose names we cannot count here, such as teacher Aybüke and teacher Necmettin, our July 15 martyr teacher Yusuf Elitaş, and the teachers we lost in the earthquake."

When asked about his opinion on the Constitutional Court's cancellation of some articles of the Teaching Profession Law, Tekin said, "As our President said today, the Teaching Profession Law, a 60-year longing, was enacted last year. Afterwards, the Constitutional Court cancelled some articles.

When the reasoned decision was published, it granted us a period of 9 months. In other words, it foresaw that regulations should be made regarding the issues cancelled by the law within 9 months. I personally think that if the law is to be reviewed, a new Teaching Profession Law can be drafted in line with the suggestions I received from our teacher friends in the teachers' room, our stakeholders, unions, and political parties."

TEACHING CAREER STEPS EXAM

Tekin stated that 58 thousand 967 teachers applied for the Teaching Career Steps written exam for specialist teaching and 3 thousand 921 for head teacher, that 99.4 percent of the applicants took the exam, and that the results were announced today.

Stating that they come together with teachers under the name "Teachers' Room Meetings," Tekin said, "On the first Saturday of every month, wherever I am, our Ministry has a system where we create an appointment button. Depending on the capacity of the hall where we will hold the meeting, which has usually been around 250 to date. 250 of our friends participate, we sit down, and we give everyone the right to speak. Participants talk about their projects and their thoughts on the education system. They record what they talked about in the branch meetings and bring them to us."

Tekin also said the following regarding the system that requires a score of at least 70 in the Turkish language course:

"We believe that our student friends will be happier after these practices are settled. We are doing these so that those children can be raised better and their capacity to express themselves in their mother tongue can develop. I am saddened that our children tend to use social media language that is not compatible with Turkish when speaking.

With the steps we have taken here, we want mother tongue skills to be established. How can we expect a child who speaks their mother tongue with 100 words to speak the foreign language we want to teach with 500 words?

In order for our children's entire educational processes, including foreign language education, to be successful, their mother tongue skills must be developed. We are trying to take such measures."

STUDIES ON MID-TERM BREAKS

While touching upon the studies on mid-term breaks, Tekin stated that the second term mid-term break will coincide with the Ramadan Feast holiday, saying, "There is a department within the general directorates related to education and training in our Ministry. All the practices we have implemented and all the steps we have taken are evaluated by that department.

News reports stating 'A survey is being conducted on mid-term breaks' are actually routine evaluations made by the Monitoring and Evaluation unit regarding whether mid-term breaks are functional or not. We will evaluate the data coming from there and sit down and make a decision regarding the mid-term breaks."

Tekin explained that President Erdoğan is very sensitive about the schools in the earthquake zone and that they have been working since he took office, saying, "When the schools opened, we started the education and training process smoothly as of September 11. We built around 2 thousand 500 new classrooms and renovated around 45 thousand classrooms within the framework of the budget opportunities allocated to us. We are targeting the classroom level before February 6 when the 2024-2025 academic year begins. We have made our planning accordingly."

TEACHER APPOINTMENTS

Minister Tekin also noted the following regarding teacher appointments:

"For the year 2023, the appointment was made in the spring months, and 45 thousand new friends joined us as of the beginning of September. There were also appointments made through EKPSS for around 4 thousand people.

Therefore, nearly 50 thousand of our friends have started. After the 2024 budget is approved by the TBMM, we will determine the number to be allocated to us for appointments in coordination with our Ministry of Treasury and Finance.

Then we will sit down at the Ministry and determine how many teachers we will recruit for which branch. Our friends should have no worries; we will make a fair and lawful branch distribution based on the percentage distributions in the quota given to us, without granting positive discrimination to any branch beyond our own needs, and we will share it with our friends."