Statement on appointments from Minister of National Education Tekin! How many teachers will be appointed?

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin answered questions regarding the agenda during a live broadcast on TRT Haber.

Stating that the events they organize for 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 mentioned that for the first time this year, one teacher who makes a difference in their 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 highlighted 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 stories arise that we try to tolerate within ourselves. We are also saddened by these and try to take precautions, but I say that what one teacher or education worker does in a huge family of 1 million 200 thousand people does not represent this entire community."

When asked about his opinion on the Constitutional Court's cancellation of some articles of the Teaching Profession Law, Tekin said, "As our President also 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 9-month period. In other words, it envisioned that regulations regarding the cancelled issues in the law should be made within 9 months. Personally, if the law is to be reviewed, I think a new Teaching Profession Law can be drafted in line with the suggestions I have received from our teacher friends in the teachers' lounges, our stakeholders, unions, and political parties."

TEACHING CAREER STEPS EXAM

Tekin stated that 58 thousand 967 teachers applied for the expert teaching position and 3 thousand 921 teachers applied for the head teacher position for the Teaching Career Steps written exam, 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 generally 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 minimum score of 70 in the Turkish language course:

"We believe that our student friends will be happier once these practices are settled. We are doing this so that those children can be better educated and develop their capacity to express themselves in their mother tongue. I am saddened that our children tend to use social media language that is not compatible with Turkish when speaking. With the steps we are taking 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? 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 and stating that the second mid-term break will coincide with the Ramadan Feast holiday, Tekin said, "There is a department within the general directorates related to education and training in our Ministry. All the practices we implement and all the steps we take are evaluated by that department. The news reports stating that '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 about the mid-term breaks."

Tekin explained that President Erdoğan is very sensitive about 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 quickly built around 2 thousand 500 new classrooms within the budget opportunities allocated to us, and we overhauled around 45 thousand classrooms. When the 2024-2025 academic year begins, we are targeting the classroom level from before February 6. We have made our planning accordingly."

HOW MANY TEACHERS WILL BE APPOINTED?

Minister Tekin also noted the following regarding teacher appointments:

"For 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. Once the 2024 budget is approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly, we will determine the number of appointments to be allocated to us in coordination with the Ministry of Treasury and Finance. Then, we will sit down at the Ministry and decide how many teachers we will recruit for each branch. Our friends should have no worries; without giving positive discrimination to any branch beyond our own needs, we will make a fair and lawful branch distribution based on the percentage distributions in the staff given to us, and we will share it with our friends."

News Source: AA