31 January 2015 15:51

Here are the highlights of Minister Avcı’s speech at the congress:

 “The young population in Turkey also shows that it has a young mind”

“We are saying “Young Turkey”. Turkey is a young country and thanks to the Almighty our population average is young and all of our officials especially Mr. President frequently issues the necessary warnings in an effort to maintain this population scene. Young population means young minds. Within this framework, when we talk about young Turkey we refer to the overwhelming majority who doesn’t know what old Turkey used to be. Due to this reason, it is necessary to repeatedly remind and explain how old Turkey used to be when we first came to power and what we have tried to do in the most suitable way and without hurting the feelings and sensitivities of our young people.”

“Vocational Schools in Turkey were harmed due to index factor”

“Those whose ages are close to mine could easily remember the state of education and conditions of the former Turkey. There was an index factor. What was it? Students who entered the university entrance exams were subjected to different evaluations even if they got the same scores. The evaluation was based on the type of high schools they attended. Scores of all vocational schools especially imam-hatip schools graduates were subject to an index. Due to this reason, vocational schools in Turkey were butchered. The sector still suffers from lack of well educated personnel due to this reason. Even today, the sector suffers from lack of experienced and educated staff because not only students but also teachers were not allowed in schools due to the way they dress.

“The number of appointed teachers in the last 13 years is equal to the number of all hired teachers throughout the history of the Republic”

“What else was there? Students of old Turkey were receiving scholarships but it was not enough for their needs, the scholarship was enough to cover only one tenth of the expenses of a student. There were no pensions, classrooms were either limited or inefficient, the FATİH project was not even mentioned, computer supported or mobile education was not known.  There was not enough number of teachers; the number of appointed teachers in the last 13 years is equal to the number of all hired teachers throughout the history of Republic. Thanks to Allah, there was not even a tiniest doubt of wrongdoing in these appointments until now.”

“In the old Turkey, parents started to get worried at the beginning of the school year about where and how to buy school books for their children. There were some parents who tried to reserve books at the bookstores. For the last decade, school books are placed on the desks of the students at the beginning of school year free of charge. So, there is no need for retired grandfathers to form lines in front of the book stores in order to find and buy school books for their grandchildren.”

“The number of students we carry to their schools every day is five times higher than the population of the city of Bilecik”

“Our friends have talked about developments experienced in the health services, citing our examples of grandfathers forming lines in front of bookstores, they reminded us that retired citizens no longer line up in the hospitals in the early hours or wait for months to get an appointment from the doctor. If there is a disabled member needing care in their families, they no longer hide them, the state now offers care support for every disabled citizen who are in need. This support is not only provided for the care services of disabled members of the families, we sent a teacher or provide other opportunities for every student who is not able to go to school in order to provide the education needs of disabled students. The number of students we carry to their schools every day is five times higher than the population of the city of Bilecik. 1 million and 300 thousand students are transported to their schools with 104 thousand school buses. The drivers of the school buses are receiving regular training and there are routine checks. During this school break, we focused on the training of school bus drivers.”

“Until now, we have distributed hundreds of thousands of tablets to schools and teachers. Currently, we are about to finalize the tender for the procurement of 675 thousand computers. We are expecting to distribute these computers to the 9th grade students.

“There is an intensive disinformation campaign against the Ministry of National Education”

“As you may have noticed, there is an intensive disinformation campaign carried out especially against the Ministry of National Education. You might have seen that this systematic disinformation campaign which was been carried out by a certain circle, exaggerated the smallest negativity and used it as propaganda material. The reason behind this campaign is the fact that we have cut their resources. Education institutions can no longer be able to function as prep schools after September 1, 2015. What will they do? They might transform their structure into a private school or private education institution until September 1, 2015 by using the incentives, bank loans and tax payment supports provided by the state.

“Some media circles benefiting from this trick has been carrying out a systematic campaign against the Ministry of National Education”

“They will no longer be able to elect successful children from various different state schools, collect them in a separate private class and claim that these children whose success were granted beforehand, were educated by their teachers and make them the t-shirts having the name of their school and use these children as advertisement material as if the success of these children belong to the school. In other words, they will not be allowed to deny the success of the education given in state schools and success and hard work of our teachers, they will not be allowed to neglect these and use our own success and hard work for their promotion. Due to this reason, some media circles benefiting from this trick have been carrying out a systematic campaign against the Ministry of National Education. You see it, we see it. But their time is running out.

“Outcome of investments on education can only be seen in the very long term”

“Outcome of investments in education can only be seen in the very long term. We raised compulsory education to 12 years, what does it mean? The results of program initiated with the children who started their education this year can only be seen when these children started studying in universities and even maybe when they finish their university education. These children and their families would then understand what we have done in order to offer the best education opportunities. We know that our teachers, trainers and administrators will be remembered with blessings on that day. In this light, I would like to remind students, teachers and parents who are actually witnessing our services in person that just like transportation, justice and health system, our education system is undertaking hundreds of projects such as the ones concerning more than 17 million students and around one million teachers.

“Thanks to Allah, Bilecik is above Turkey’s average in terms of educational indicators”

 “We prefer not to announce which cities were most successful in the university entrance examinations as we know that this might cause, let’s not say jealousy, envy among themselves. We are aware which city is most successful in which field, the reasons of failure and success and take measures within this framework. Thanks to Allah, Bilecik is above the average of Turkey in terms of educational indicators. But is it enough? Of course, not. There is still lot to do and we have projects within this framework.”