Education decaying in the shadow of flowery words

The calendar has moved forward, and as every year, the opening date of schools has arrived. The 2026-2027 academic year began on Monday, September 14.

As someone who has dedicated more than half of their life to the education sector, I sat down at the keyboard thinking that I should write about education on such a date.

Education is about the future. Therefore, flowery words, quantities that serve a purpose, and embellished images cannot change the result. If you want to improve the result, you must also improve the processes.

As every year, the year-end teachers' board meetings were held. Were teachers really listened to in these meetings, or were they made to listen to tasks and procedures dictated from the center?

How much of what was discussed in these meetings was related to the structural problems of education and the components of education?

For example, were the lack of permanent support staff in schools, insufficient school budgets, teachers' personal rights, student health and safety, overcrowded classrooms, double-shift education, and the heavy costs borne by parents due to all these issues on the agenda?

At the beginning of every academic year, the Ministry of National Education (MEB) publishes a circular. That circular gives direction to the new academic year. A 44-article circular numbered 2026/70 was also published for the 2026-2027 year.

Periodic political rhetoric is noticeable in the very first article of the circular. Expressions in the text such as “uncompromising top priority…”, “…acting in accordance with state administration…”, “Century of Turkey…” reflect the aim of distancing schools from being places that produce free knowledge and turning them into areas of ideological propaganda.

The requirement in the circular to carry out activities in line with the implementation guides to be prepared by the ministry throughout the year imposes guardianship over teachers, who are in a profession of expertise, strips them of their autonomy, and thus imposes a centralized, standardized method. This situation contradicts contemporary educational principles, distances our country from its era, and aims to raise individuals who are rote-learning, exam-oriented, religious, and market-driven.

The tasks and procedures included in the circular have ignored structural problems. For example, the task of regulating class sizes has been given to the Provincial Directorates of National Education (MEM). In this context, MEMs have been instructed as follows: “Taking measures such as changing school types, swapping buildings, and developing alternative solution proposals; merging relevant class branches in case of a decrease in class sizes during the academic year, and closing branches that have no students left…”

Therefore, no instruction regarding the increase in class sizes was included in the article, and the consequences arising from this responsibility were left to the MEMs.

The issue of teachers wearing aprons in the circular was expressed as “observing the prestige of the teaching profession, the responsibility of representation, and the quality of being a role model for students…”, and the task of following up on the regulation was loaded onto the MEMs, who were asked to ignore the regulation yesterday in order to bring in the headscarf.

In the process, the issue of dress code has reached such a state that an unlimited spectrum of clothing has emerged in schools, from beards to skullcaps, from headscarves to baggy trousers, from miniskirts to shorts. Now that the goal has been achieved, there must have been a need to make these images invisible, so the “Regulation on the Dress Code of Personnel Working in Public Institutions and Organizations,” which was ignored yesterday, has been taken off the shelf.

One of the ‘tasks and procedures’ imposed on teachers by the circular is the obligation for teachers to enter data into digital platforms created by the ministry. With this practice, an excessive burden has been placed on the teacher outside of teaching duties, and teachers have been turned into objects monitored from the center.

Another bleeding wound is the issue of surplus teachers. The circular states that these teachers will be appointed when needed without being bound by any calendar.

Can you imagine, the bill for the surplus status caused by the administration's planning error has been cut to the teacher again. Therefore, the disruption of the teacher's family integrity and the violation of individual rights and freedoms through these ex officio appointments have been deemed appropriate by the authority, and no harm was seen in dictating the decision to teachers at the beginning of the academic year.

Let's come to the regulation: “The use of music, videos, brochures, banners, etc. to be used in celebrations, commemoration days, graduations, and similar events in schools shall be subject to the approval of the ‘Work Review and Selection Board’; pedagogical and ethical principles shall be adhered to in social media posts; and graduation events shall be carried out in a way that is compatible with social values and student identity and does not bring additional burden to parents…”

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read this article. It reminded me of Article 43 of the Basic Law of National Education No. 1739, which was repealed (abolished) by the regulation dated (3/2/2022-7354/10). The article stated that preparation for the teaching profession would be provided through general culture, special field education, and pedagogical formation.

So what does this mean?

It means that those who abolished pedagogical formation yesterday to allow members of sects and communities into schools can say “pedagogical formation” in the circular they prepared when it suits them!...

In summary, we are starting the 2026-2027 academic year by moving a little further away from republican education. Counter-revolutionary forces continue their efforts to clear away the last remnants of contemporary, secular, scientific, and public-oriented education. The market-driven, reactionary understanding of education is decaying our future.