Teachers gather in front of the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education: 'Ensure our safety, take the necessary measures!'

Ayhan TAŞPINARLIOĞLU-12punto.com.tr

Education unions made statements in front of the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education to protest the increasing number of violence cases.

The following statements were included in the joint press release of the unions:

"Under conditions where our labor is devalued and our profession is discredited through the Ministry of National Education and the political power's rhetoric and approaches toward education workers, as well as the Teaching Profession Law, education workers—who are not targeted even in wars—continue to be targets of violence in schools.

The incident that took a colleague of ours, who had dedicated most of his life to education and his students, away from life and his students the other day is not related to a simple fit of rage, the fact that the perpetrator was a student, or the perpetrator's nationality.

The fact that those responsible for education have pointed to teachers as the cause of negative developments in education in their statements to date, the transformation of the CİMER application into a stick against us, and the Ministry of National Education leaving teachers and administrators as the sole interlocutors against parents/students instead of producing solutions to the problems in education have laid the groundwork for what is happening today.

A teacher was killed at school in this country! Enough is enough! We all know very well that there is not just a single perpetrator of violence and murder.

The mentality behind the murder belongs to those who marginalize us, target us by threatening us at every opportunity, and trample the reputation of our profession. 'The level of civilization of a society is measured by the value it places on teachers.'

Teachers are the architects who lay the foundation stones of society, raise future generations, and guide them toward a bright future. Every attack on a teacher is an attack on the entire society and the country's future. Let us not forget that an uneducated society is condemned to darkness.

We ask the Minister of National Education here;

How many more education workers must lose their lives to prevent violence in schools?

Due to the lack of planning by the government and the Ministry of National Education, our schools are at serious risk in terms of security. Will we pay the price for the security gap in our schools with our lives?

We underline this once again. We know that, like every crime, this crime has instigators, and we know them very well.

- Like the murders we have experienced many times before, the instigators of this latest murder are those who try to spread the false perception in society that teachers are not working.

- Those who make us open targets in our schools today are those who use the seats they were appointed to without merit as if they were their own domain, and the local administrators who try to humiliate us at every opportunity. They are those who ignore that teaching is also a specialized profession. Those who fuel violence in schools are those who have insisted on turning a deaf ear to our criticisms and suggestions regarding education for years.

- Those who make us targets are those who belittle our labor at every opportunity and discredit our profession.

The fact that education workers go to school today worrying about their lives is the work of these people. The first step that must be taken for this is a radical change in this mentality.

The reasons behind violence in schools must be uncovered, and the safety of education workers must be ensured.

We call on the Ministry of National Education to take urgent action and measures to end violence in schools.

To prevent the frightening escalation in violent incidents in schools, a law on violence in education must be enacted as soon as possible.

An action plan showing concrete measures to be taken, what will be done, and how it will be prevented to combat violence must be prepared in all educational institutions.

Perpetrators must be punished in a way that will soothe the conscience of society and act as a deterrent for future incidents.

Regardless of whether it is a private or public school, the security of all schools must be ensured immediately.

RTÜK, which acts as a moral guardian, should make social violence its primary agenda and ensure the supervision of TV productions themed around mafia and crime.

Instead of a curriculum filled with a thousand and one unnecessary and even harmful contents, teaching programs that teach that violence is archaic and wrong and include social life lessons should be prepared.

We do not want to go to school worrying about our own lives and those of our students, and we do not accept an education system where our safety is not guaranteed!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! WE DO NOT WANT TO WORK IN FEAR FOR OUR LIVES!"