CHP's Özçağdaş: 'There is a need for 100,000 teachers!'

CHP Deputy Chairman responsible for the Ministry of National Education and Istanbul MP Suat Özçağdaş delivered a speech at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) regarding the CHP's group proposal on 'Problems Experienced in Teacher Appointments and the Situation of Teachers.'

Pointing out that there is a shortage of approximately 100,000 teachers in the public sector and criticizing the Minister of National Education on the matter, Özçağdaş said, "We have 19 million students in Turkey, nearly 1 million public school teachers, nearly 200,000 private sector teachers, and the problem of unappointed teachers, which was 68,000 when the Justice and Development Party came to power and has reached 1 million today. Recently, the President said he was giving the good news of 25,000 appointments, yet the reality is not 25,000, but 15,000. 15,000 teachers will be recruited with the 2024 KPSS, and 10,000 will be through the National Education Academy at the earliest in two years. When and how will these 1 million teachers start working for the state? Similarly, we have 100,000 contract teachers. Even though the Minister of National Education says, 'There is no such concept as a contract teacher,' teachers apply through a tab in e-Devlet named 'contract teacher.' When this was pointed out, the name of the tab in e-Devlet was changed, and thus the problem was solved. The number of these teachers, who cannot retire even if they work for a lifetime, whose salaries you sometimes cannot pay, and who earn below the minimum wage, is 100,000. If 100,000 teachers are working as contract teachers, it means the state has a teacher shortage starting from 100,000, and this year you are appointing 15,000 teachers, meaning you are carrying out the lowest number of appointments even in your own government's history. We have discussed this here for a long time recently; we talked about the victims of the interviews. They visited all the deputies here, they visited the ruling party deputies, they visited the opposition party deputies," he said.

'I AM CALLING OUT TO THE GOVERNMENT'

Emphasizing that the number of 15,000 teachers to be appointed must absolutely be increased and calling out to the government, CHP Deputy Chairman Suat Özçağdaş stated the following: "Regarding 1,611 teachers, the Minister first said, 'There is no such injustice,' 'Where is this coming from?' he said, 'These are political criticisms,' he said, 'I do not accept these.' And today, in the decision you made with the appointment of 15,000 teachers, it says: 'Oral exam centers will be determined according to appointment fields.' So what does this mean? It means, 'I did not set the appointment centers accordingly in the previous interview and I experienced problems here.' Then what is the sin of these 1,611 teachers? Why are you not starting these interview-victim teachers on their duties? We are calling out to the government once again from here: Now, you have determined your recruitment conditions, and you yourself admit that these 1,611 teachers are indeed victims of the interviews. First of all, announce an additional quota for these 1,611 teachers. An appointment of 15,000 teachers is not enough in a country where there are 100,000 teachers, in a country where there are contract teachers; increase this number of 15,000."

News Source: 12punto