MINISTER ÖZER ATTENDED

27 September 2022 16:03

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer made a speech at the workshop based on social violence against women, children, disadvantaged groups and health workers by RTÜK and expressed his condolences to the martyred policeman who died during a terror attack against police residence in Mersin.
 
Noting that technological developments have been affecting all society, Özer said that technology has become an essential part of life.
 
"Especially internet is a must for the modern human being, it enriches and differentiates communication but also it is hard to control. We see that digital addiction among especially young people is not only about online games but also about social media. Prevention of digital addiction has been on the agenda not only in Türkiye but also in the World since 2014. Increase in digital addiction also increases individualism," stated Özer.
 
He stressed that children are keeping their communications with other family members at a minimum level, adding that Covid-19 pandemic increased this tendency.  
 
Özer went on to say that: "Despite people being exposed to more information, reaching correct information is becoming harder. Truth and information is hidden under but they are hard to find. Groups that produce technology can intervene and dominate the choices, behaviors and reactions of a larger part of the world."
 
Özer stressed that there are two main dimensions of violence in media namely, increasing visibility of violence in media and inability to reach correct information adding that, "Although the Ministry of National Education has been working in effort to increase the socialization capacity of children and keep them away from addiction, we must note that we are facing a very challenging problem. This problem cannot be solved with the efforts of only our Ministry; it requires common effort."
 
Wrong information is a violence committed against truth
Özer stated that Türkiye has 25 million young population and it is an opportunity and went on to say that, "Our Ministry is to equip our young people with academic skills so that they can compete with their peers in the world but we also want them to become healthy individuals and support their psychological and emotional development and communication skills. When our children are exposed to violence, violence content on digital platforms frequently, they are traumatized. This trauma will affect their relations with their peers and also have an adverse impact on the school environment. Violence is not limited to physical acts. Actually, I believe that wrong information is a violence committed against the truth."
 
They use unreal information in order to give the impression that there is chaos at schools
"Although, an exceptional violence incident took place at only one school, some circles used unreal information in order to give the impression that there is chaos at schools. I sincerely believe that people of this country, especially youngsters, will make contributions in order to prevent the quick and easy dissemination of wrong information. We witnessed some incidents that caused trauma and we learned the reality after tragedies. Efforts of the Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Interior Affairs and Ministry of Family are not enough, it is necessary for all ministries, state offices and media executives to join forces in order to solve this problem," said Özer.
 
Minister Özer reminded that his Ministry has been taking important steps in order to raise awareness among students, teachers and families about violence in media, disinformation and wrong information and they have included "media literacy" elective course to the education program in cooperation with RTÜK.
 
Özer mentioned the Family School Project initiated under the auspices of Emine Erdoğan with the purpose of stressing the importance of communication among family members, cultural values and family values.
 
"The Family School project aimed at decreasing drug and internet addiction among young people, raising family awareness, increasing environmental awareness and giving information to families how to reach correct information," he stated.
 
"Our goal is to reach one million families until the end of this year"
Özer said that they have reached 137 thousand families within a month and their goal is to reach one million people by the end of this year. He stressed the Ministry organized training programs for teachers about media and internet addiction in order to raise their awareness about this subject.
 
Özer added: "Schools are the reflection of society. Based on this approach, I believe that news reports will consider this fact."