Minister of National Ziya Selçuk thanked participants of "New Norms in Education: International Covid-19 Congress" during his speech via teleconference. "With the will of Allah, we will find the opportunity to put our signature under new projects by using the outcome of this process," said Selçuk. Noting that the Ministry of National Education took the necessary measures rapidly, Minister Selçuk stated, "It was because it was a matter of very important emergency. Due to this reason, we gathered with our team members in order to give the best example in terms of education in world standards during the pandemic by monitoring international developments in a very short period of time. Of course, it was not a subject that can be solved by a single minister within a single ministry. Due to this reason, we constantly consulted with other ministry and exchanged views under the leadership of our President and we tried to make right decisions within a very short period of time upon the recommendations of Medical Science Board. When we look back, we see that measures we took prevented the worst and narrowed down the problems that might have occurred. If it was not for these measures, the problem might have been greater and may have caused great disasters. May Allah forbid, this new controlled process continues with success due to previous measures." Minister Selçuk stressed that this issue requires an overall effort adding that, "Due to this reason, we keep on consulting and exchanging views with other offices and institutions all the time and we try to share what happens and our perspective about current and future scenarios."
"More than 1 million teachers of the country is our force"
Selçuk stated that the current situation is not easy and the country has been experiencing some problems and went on to say, "But we must consider that the number of students in our country is higher than the population of a number of European countries. Thanks to Allah, this is our forte. More than 1 million teachers in our country is our force and during this process, our teachers worked for the Vefa support groups, they reached both students and parents who were stuck at home; school principals and our provincial and district administrators worked with great sacrifice and as a result we achieved success. Thanks to Allah, we have managed to hold a detailed exam which is not available in almost all over the world namely High School Entrance Exam (LGS) without a hitch during such a process."
"When we consider all these studies, we are revising what we have achieved again and again by monitoring the whole World on a daily basis. We never consider putting education in a recess. We have prepared a large lesson content that will be aired onn EBA television and EBA internet infrastructure for the next 2 months throughout the summer. Really, there is no other example of this, we used all our means and opportunities to prepare class videos for every child. These videos were not only academic but also included social emotional issues, cultural issues, national moral issues, skills and hobbies and many more," said Selçuk. He also made comments about vocational schools and said the following: "Beyond this success during distance education, we also made a worldwide achievement with our projects in vocational schools and we carried out many activities in R&D centers in these schools. Vocational schools have easily produced many machines and devices such as isolation, sample taking units, protective face masks, disinfectants, mask machines and ventilators by using high technology and software and as a nation we once more understood the importance of vocational schools." Expressing his belief that support for vocational schools in Artvin will increase, Minister Selçuk stated, "I am sure that all regional and provincial administrators especially our Governor will do their best to support our vocational school students and their parents."
"We also focus on perspectives about the future"
Minister Selçuk stressed that the Ministry of National Education also considered its perspective concerning the future during this process and added: "In other words, we considered what measures we must take in the new education year, orientation of students according to their age and grade and remedial training and its duration. We also made plans about structural transformation of supportive training courses. We focused on training teachers including their courses during the next two months. We had the opportunity to share our plans in detail with the public and we have new projects ahead. With the will of Allah, as a nation we would like to put our signature under a success story with our efforts in education."
Noting that they had shared these achievements in international meetings, Selçuk said, "We had the opportunity to share how Turkey achieved this within a short period of time with the members of various different countries. I wish that other countries in the world would also do the same, we would exchange views and I would like to thank everyone who have supported and worked with sacrifice."