Minister Tekin announces number of private schools facing disciplinary action

Reminding that the National Education Academy was legalized in Turkey in October, Tekin stated that the National Education Academy and its relevant boards were officially established as of January 1, and that work is currently ongoing.

Reporting that they have started the process of converting the ministry's in-service training centers with suitable infrastructure into the Academy, Tekin said, "Apart from that, we plan to convert structures belonging to public institutions or our ministry that meet the physical requirements we are looking for into the National Education Academy. It is not the case that one will be established in every province. We had planned to establish them in about 30 provinces initially, and work is currently being done on this. Hopefully, it will be operational as of September 1."

Stating that the training at the Academy is planned for 14 months, Tekin emphasized that teacher candidates will spend the vast majority of this period in practical courses.

Minister Tekin spoke as follows:

"From now on, we will employ our teacher candidates as follows; we organized the Academy Entrance Exam, not KPSS, together with ÖSYM. The first one will be on July 13 this year. Based on the results of this exam and the number of teachers we need, we will have admitted teacher candidates to the academy. We will have recruited our friends as candidate teachers with a salary that can be considered slightly above the minimum wage. They are not civil servants; they are our friends whom we have taken into our fold, whom we have assigned to complete the process related to teacher candidacy in our academies. Some of the courses will be theoretical. As a result of these theoretical courses, our teacher candidate friends will take an exam. Those who are successful will move on to the practical training stage. There is also a mechanism we call multi-evaluation in practical training."

Stating that teacher appointments will be made for the last time with the 2024 KPSS, Tekin announced that appointments will be made through the new process thereafter.

"WE WANT TO CREATE A GROUND WHERE THEY WILL BE VERY SUCCESSFUL"

Upon the question, "What is the difference between the education in faculties of education and the Academy? What will the candidates see that they did not see in the faculty of education?", Minister Tekin said that academic education is provided in the undergraduate programs of universities.

Stating that the National Education Academy will focus on the framework of the curriculum to be taught in schools instead of academic education, Tekin emphasized that they will focus on what is intended to be taught to children at the Academy.

Stating that they will carry out the process together with universities and their relevant units in terms of personnel in all of the Academy's practice centers, Tekin said, "We will take our friends into our fold in the academies either to teach courses or through temporary assignments from there, and we will continue these studies with them. But the main point where we differ here, or the reason why we attach so much importance to these issues, is that we want our teacher candidate friends to receive the parts related to practice a little more intensively, and we want to create a ground where they can practice their profession one-on-one without feeling like strangers when they start the profession, and where they will be very successful."

Stating that candidates who are successful in the Academy will be appointed and that they will offer preferences according to their score superiority, Tekin noted that they will announce which schools have the teacher positions they need, and that they will be placed in schools according to their success scores after applications.

"WE CONDUCTED OUR EXAMS AND INTERVIEWS IN A FAIR MANNER"

Minister Tekin, in response to the question, "There are those who claim to be victims in the interview after the last appointment, and there is a struggle being carried out on social media in this context. There is a process that continues gradually regarding the recruitment of 20 thousand teachers, but what do you say about the objections?", recalled that he had said at the beginning of the process that they would establish a mechanism where favoritism would not work and would be prevented.

Sharing information about the measures taken during the interview process, Yusuf Tekin noted the following:

"Now, the point we have reached here is this; as of now, we have announced the results, we have made the appointments, and from now on, the only thing a person who knows a little bit about administrative law would say is this; Look, as an administrator, I cannot make any corrections here on my own initiative right now. For this, I need a legal basis in my hand. There must be something, that is, a decision that an injustice has been done. But right now, friends are objecting so that we can review the grades and appointments again. Such a thing contradicts the principle of the rule of law anyway, how can we do this? Look, we have taken all the measures that can be taken, from now on if there are errors, these errors can only be addressed through the objection path, and many of them have already objected, and evaluations have been made regarding their objections. The documents that friends received as a result of the evaluations made regarding the objections made on this subject are another matter that can be referred to the judiciary, they can also carry them there. Ultimately, there is no such thing as a tiny bit of favoritism, nepotism, or saying that they took their relatives, etc., in this process. We do not eat anyone's rights. This is also the instruction of our President to us. We conducted our exams and interviews in a fair manner without violating the rights of others."

"WE HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS UP TO CLOSURE"

Minister Yusuf Tekin, upon a question regarding the regulation change that also covers private school fees, said that there are prices that disturb the public in 22 schools out of 12 thousand private schools.

Stating that a fee is paid according to the quality of service in private schools, Tekin expressed that there are schools in very different categories in private schools within this scope, and that there may be a difference between the amount paid according to the service received.

Noting that the ministry does not have the right to audit in the service contract made for the first time, Tekin continued as follows:

"We have the authority here; once you have purchased the service, we regulate in our regulation how much the person selling the service and providing the service can increase the service each year as long as the service continues, and we defined it as inflation plus 5 percent. In the future, as the figures related to inflation go down, we will definitely need to make changes in this regulation, but as it stands now, it is inflation plus 5 percent. For whom is this? This concept is about the increase to be made in the following year in the ongoing service contract of a person who has already purchased the service and made a service contract.

In the first days of this year, we made another regulation change and said that these are things accepted as natural parts of education. They are included in this service contract and no additional fees can be charged for them. We also talked about this with private school representatives at the meeting we held in Antalya last week. Are there those who practice incorrectly among the 12 thousand private schools here? There certainly can be. We and the union representatives of private schools constantly express this there as well. We say; if there is a private school that makes an unlawful, incorrect practice on this subject, report it to us, let us go and make our investigation with our inspectors. Because our penal sanctions are heavy, when the same crime is committed 2 times, there is an administrative fine for the first 2, and we have the authority to impose sanctions up to closure for the 3rd. In 2025, action was initiated against 750 schools upon complaints received."

"I DO NOT FIND IT RIGHT TO DO POLITICS OVER THIS"

Minister Tekin, upon a question, said, "As the Ministry of National Education, after the earthquake, that is, on February 6, approximately 9 thousand 935 of our classrooms became completely unusable. That is, there is no possibility of holding classes in these schools. As I said, they are either destroyed or need to be demolished. In addition, in this sense, we have about 5 thousand classrooms that we can reopen for education and training with the work we call strengthening, and we have strengthened them. We currently have 9 thousand 935 classrooms that became unusable as of September 9, 2024, that is, while starting the 2024-2025 academic year, and 7 thousand 497 classrooms became operational as new construction in the 2024-2025 academic year."

"In a place where 9 thousand 935 classrooms have become unusable, we have already built approximately 7 thousand 500 classrooms from scratch. This is the picture, and I do not find it right to do politics over this," said Tekin, stating that 12 thousand 321 classrooms will be completed or tendered within 2025, and noted the following:

"That is, the vast majority of these will have been completed in September 2025. When they are all completed, this figure is very important; even though our 9 thousand 900 classrooms were lost on February 6, 19 thousand 818 additional classrooms will have become operational in our 11 provinces. When we look at the average, let me say as a ratio, our total number of classrooms in 11 provinces has increased by 12 percent compared to before February 6. 'You will increase it by at least 10 percent for each province', this is our President's instruction to us. We will have increased our number of classrooms in all of these 11 provinces and before February 6, before the earthquake, by a minimum of 10 percent."

"IT CAN BE USED ON THE CONDITION OF NOT PREVENTING THE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF OTHERS"

Stating that fundamental rights and freedoms are under constitutional guarantee in democratic states of law, Tekin noted that education and training is one of the fundamental rights and freedoms in the Constitution.

Tekin said, "As for the part related to trade union freedoms, trade union freedoms are also guaranteed by our constitution, but we must know this, the entire international literature, all literature related to human rights and universal documents, when drawing a boundary regarding the use of a fundamental right and freedom, refer to this concept, fundamental rights and freedoms can be used on the condition of not preventing the fundamental rights and freedoms of another person."

"WE DESIRE THESE SCHOOLS TO CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION AND TRAINING"

Minister Tekin also touched upon the Heybeliada Seminary issue.

Stating that the education rights and other rights of minorities living in Turkey, including their religious education rights, were guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne, Tekin said that the same thing applies to Western Thrace, that is, for the Western Thrace Turks for Greece.

Emphasizing that they place the education and training rights of Western Thrace Turks at the center of all these discussions in their meetings with Greece, Tekin said, "Our Ministry has been taking and continues to take all measures that can guarantee the education and training rights of minority schools in Turkey, that is, Armenians, Jews, and Greek minorities. That is, we desire these schools to continue their education and training. The Heybeliada process has worked a little differently, we visited there, we held our meetings. The process is ongoing, we talked to our relevant interlocutors about what kind of education type is requested, they discussed it among themselves. We made our evaluations regarding their previous legislation, now our meetings continue in this vein."

News Source: AA