Minister Tekin's statement on 'French schools' and the internet: 'Do not be immoral'

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin both responded to public criticism and made statements regarding the new 'New Maarif Model'.

TEKIN SPOKE AS FOLLOWS:

Stating that he observed the importance of harmony and cooperation within the political mechanism during his previous roles as deputy minister and undersecretary, Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin said, 'In provinces where there is no harmony among the local politicians, members of parliament, mayors, and provincial chairs, those provinces truly face losses. They cannot do what they want. They lose time. They cannot receive the desired investments and services.'

They were facing such a problem. Actually, this was one of my biggest concerns when I first started as minister. However, since our first meeting after I took office, they accepted me among them. I saw how strong the harmony between them was. We take every step together. We take every step by consulting and talking together.'

As a matter of fact, before this meeting started, we held our consultation at the teachers' house on making a joint decision regarding Erzurum and moving forward on a common decision. I would like to thank our provincial chair, our Metropolitan Mayor, and our deputies in your presence for being instrumental in ensuring this harmony.'

We need to bring the teachers' house in Erzurum to a different status. God willing, if there is no setback, I want to bring a new teachers' house with three hundred beds to Erzurum with the formula that our Metropolitan Mayor will produce regarding the land,' he said.

'CONSULTATION CULTURE IS IMPORTANT TO US'

Stating that he has been involved in politics since the age of 13, Minister Tekin said, 'I started by hanging posters at the age of 13. Since then, we have been involved in politics in various ways in every election period. Those who criticized the political struggle we carried out at that time, the ethical struggle we carried out within politics, and the politics we carried out with loyalty to our leader, a loyalty unto death, have had to show respect today. Because we came to power with these feelings, these thoughts, and this excitement.'

Protecting our power can only be achieved by possessing the same moral principles, the same enthusiasm, and the same motivation. However, there is another important point. If we have set out on this path together through consultation, harmony, and conscientious deliberation, no one can ever turn us back from the path we have taken.

In other words, you will continue on the path you know to be right without fearing the censure of those who criticize you and without paying heed to the criticisms of those who come at you. As the AK cadre, we are a great family that will continue on its path without fearing the censure of any critic, in order to serve this country and this nation within the framework drawn by our President. I would like to thank all the members of this family once again for their presence. May God be pleased with them all,” he said.

"THOSE WHO CRITICIZE ME TODAY WERE CRITICIZING ME BACK THEN"

Stating that the people who criticized him for his actions today are the same people who criticized him during the 12-13 years leading up to the July 15 process, and that they have constantly targeted him, he said, “Because I was saying that there is a structure that has settled upon our country, fed and funded from abroad, with a project and a roadmap drawn up from abroad. There is a movement that is expected to be fed from abroad, terminated from abroad, and whose project and roadmap are drawn from abroad. There is a structure.

This structure has a problem with this country's independence and its character as a nation-state. There is a structure that wants to make us a colony of someone, that wants to make us someone's backyard. I was saying that we must fight against this structure. Those who criticize me today were criticizing me back then. Just today, before coming here, I took a look during the week.

I looked at who criticized my actions and what language they used during the 'dershane' (private tutoring center) dispute before the December 17-25 process. Isn't it strange? Those who are criticizing me now were criticizing me back then. They realized later that we were on the right path back then. They will realize that we are on the right path today as well. Because we do all the work we do through consultation,” he said.

"WE PAY THE BILL FOR THE INTERNET CONNECTION"

Expressing that revolutionary work is being done in every field in Turkey under the leadership of President Erdoğan, Minister Tekin said, “Currently, all our schools at the middle school level and above in Turkey have fiber optic connections. Some have standard network connections. There is an internet connection in all our schools. As the Ministry, we pay the bill for the internet connection in all our schools. Look, this is not free. We pay the bill for this. We pay hundreds of millions of liras in internet bills every month. That is not all; we have smart boards in nearly seven hundred thousand of our classrooms.

So, what are the children doing with these smart boards? Do you know what they are doing with the smart boards? There is an educational portal we created at our ministry called EBA, which contains practices from our teachers in different regions of a great Turkey, as well as good practices from various countries around the world.

Through that portal, our teachers show the children visual films, music, or applications whenever they want. Friends, the figure I mentioned regarding non-educational use does not exist in any other country in the world. When we explain this, our counterparts in other countries appreciate us in this regard,” he said.

THE ISSUE OF FRENCH SCHOOLS

Stating, “There is a lot of discussion about me in the public eye these days,” Minister Tekin asked, “I had asked you before. The things we do will not please the opposition or certain circles. And they will criticize me a lot. Will you stand by me?” Minister Tekin thanked his fellow citizens and party organization members following the applause from the hall.

Minister Tekin continued his statement as follows: “One of these, as you may have seen in the media this morning, is a nonsensical criticism. And there is an interesting group regarding the two French schools. They are making up and writing false things. I need to explain the essence of the matter here. Because it is important from my perspective. With the Republic, we signed the Treaty of Lausanne. And in the Treaty of Lausanne, there are foreign schools in Turkey that our founding cadres signed off on. There are twelve foreign schools. There are French schools. There are German schools. An Italian school. We invited them to Lausanne, and we are not causing any problems. We have no issues with them.”

However, interestingly, France has opened two more schools in Turkey, acting in a way that is not even in these letters, but only befitting colonial countries. I won't name the schools here. They opened two schools, and despite having said that they would only admit French citizens when opening them, the current student body is 90 percent Turkish citizens. We can guess which Turkish citizens these are. In other words, Turkish citizens who send their children to a French school.

We are obligated to implement a legal and twelve-year compulsory education system for children. Therefore, if a Turkish citizen attending that school is not registered with me, it means I am not doing my job because I am not schooling that child. I am now asking, where are the children? In school. Which school? They are not in our records. Where are they going? To those two French schools. Because it is not official, these children appear as if they are not in school.

Now I am saying to the French, I told the ambassador. Look, what you are doing is not right. I had written the letter when I was an undersecretary. They stalled us. 'Oh yes, you are right.' They don't admit us to the school. We send inspectors to the school to see if there are students, and they don't let them in. Now they say, 'You cannot inspect.' Then the children graduate, the child who graduates from there. They bring the equivalence of their diploma to us. In other words, they are pitting me against the citizens. Not enough, these children take the YÖS exams in a privileged position, they take the higher education institution exams we hold for foreign students. So there is an injustice there. Now we are saying to them, let's come and talk. 'We will come, we will come tomorrow, the next day.' 'This happened.' We invited the ambassador. He came. 'We will solve it at the first opportunity.' When did we talk about this? In December. Seven or eight months have passed since he said 'we will solve it at the first opportunity.' They still don't deign to engage with us. And I say, my brother, look, we are not like the countries you colonized.

RESPONSE TO CRITICISMS REGARDING RELIGIOUS CULTURE CLASSES

We are an independent and sovereign state; therefore, if you want to provide education here according to our literature, you will act according to our conditions. Let us make these schools legitimate. In return, we will have some demands from you for Turkish citizens in France. You block the demands of our citizens there and act as you please.

Then we sent an official letter. Now they are having major columnists write articles. One very prominent journalist has written such nonsense, for example, saying, 'The Minister of National Education is closing these schools because they cannot teach religious culture classes.' Do not be immoral. This is truly an immoral lie. Now, on this occasion, as a Minister of National Education who acts responsibly to protect the national and international law of the independent Republic of Turkey, I state that we have taken the necessary steps regarding these schools.

If they comply with our conditions, they can continue their operations. If they do not, that is their own choice. We will follow the necessary legal procedures. I would like to share this on this occasion as well,” he said.

"CRITICISMS OF THE NEW EDUCATION MODEL"

Responding to criticisms regarding the new education model, Minister Tekin said, “I have explained this many times on screen. What were we trying to do? Here is what we are trying to do, friends. The world has changed. Should we continue to educate our children with the same logic as thirty or forty years ago? Or do we have to keep up with the conditions of the world? Now I look at international reports. They criticize our education system. What do they criticize it with? They say you are overloading these children with information; in fact, when compared to many Western countries whose systems are cited as examples, we load twice as much information onto children in our twelve-year education system. Now, this is not pedagogical.

This is not suitable for the positions of our children. I say let us reduce this. That is one thing I am saying. Two, I am saying that it is no longer about loading information onto children. We need to look at whether the child can use the information I give them in daily life. The world is looking at this. I say let us change our system accordingly. This is the essence of the change we made in the program. We added one more thing to this. We said that there are many deviant trends spreading in the world. Children are going astray; they are losing many values from family life to patriotism, morality, compassion, and so on. I want these children to embrace and grow up with the common national and spiritual values of this country. That is why do not attack the system. They come to you one by one and say our children are growing up like this. Fine, we will put it in the curriculum, we will fix it.

Therefore, our curriculum was prepared with a logic and technique suitable for the requirements of the age, and it was prepared with content suitable for the requirements of the age. Secondly, it was prepared with a local and national perspective. It is being prepared to impart these values. Now, there are criticisms from members of the Republican People's Party (CHP) regarding me and the program. They say it is contrary to the principle of secularism. I say I am a political scientist. It is not contrary to the principle of secularism or anything. But it does not align with the definition of secularism that the CHP is trying to impose on me. This is true.

I am not speaking based on rhetoric. I am speaking based on practices. This is what the CHP understands by secularism. There are those here who heard from their mothers and fathers in the 1940s. Who banned mosques and Quran courses? The CHP. Well, what did they ban? Now, is it possible for the CHP's understanding of secularism to be the same as mine? Therefore, I say that is your understanding of secularism.

I have a different understanding of secularism. That is one. Two. On February 28, those who took headscarved university students into persuasion rooms to force them to uncover their heads, why were they doing this, friends? For the principle of secularism. Well, does their principle of secularism overlap with the secularism I understand? No. Therefore, I cannot reach an agreement with them.

News Source: İHA