Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk and the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk attended the online promotion meeting of the "Project for increasing quality and accession in early childhood education" which is jointly financed by the Republic of Turkey and the European Union.
Addressing the meeting which was also attended by UNICEF Turkey Representative Regina De Dominicis and Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, Selçuk stated, "We are aware that our needs are changing during the global pandemic period and this change will continue in the aftermath of the pandemic. We are making global comparative analysis about what to do. I believe that these studies will be useful for pre-school and early childhood education."
Noting that he is aware of the fact that early childhood has a great impact in the future, identity and personality of people, Selçuk said that is the reason why the Ministry of National Education has been carrying out intensive studies about the emotional, cognitive and motor development of children.
Selçuk stressed that his Ministry gives great importance to projects about early childhood education and the purpose of the "Project for increasing quality and accession in early childhood education" is in harmony with the goals mentioned in the 2021 Education Vision.
Selçuk expressed his gratitude about the comprehensive approach of the project that especially includes disadvantaged children and said: "We know that this project will be implemented only in 20 cities of the country and we believe that this selected 20 cities is suitable to represent the entire country. Summer pre-school, rotating teacher practices, establishment of game rooms in various different centers and play parks.... These may seem like just some of the contents of the project but we know that every single one of them will add color to the lives of children and lead a change."
The project will be associated to other activities of the Ministry of National
Stating that he has full confidence that the contents of the project will be associated to the other activities of the Ministry and become richer, Selçuk said, "In addition to 12 activity books for preschool students and teachers, 36 story books will be published as a part of the project. We already opened a website entitle, "Reading Fish". This website offers many audio books and digital reading materials."
"We also expect that this project which focuses on early childhood education will become an important source for scientific research. In other words, such projects provide a laboratory and a social ecosystem. We want to organize seminars and come together with scientists in order to increase the impact of the project," Selçuk added.
Selçuk stressed that "We are aware that our needs are changing during the global pandemic period and this change will continue in the aftermath of the pandemic. We are making global comparative analysis about what to do. I believe that these studies will be useful for pre-school and early childhood education."
At the end of his address, Selçuk thanked Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk for her contribution to the project.
"Early childhood education must be constructed on three main bases"
Meanwhile, Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk said, "We consider early childhood education services as the first step of social welfare, humanitarian development and social policies for the establishment of social justice."
The Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services said during her speech at the online promotion meeting that education is the guide that prepares the child for life."
Noting that the government has been prioritizing making investment to the early childhood period, she said that IPA funds allocated by the EU are used for many projects aiming at increasing employment, quality of education and social development and also for this project designed for increasing quality of education in early childhood.
Minister Selçuk pointed out that social policies for children who are the guarantee of future are turned into state policy adding that they aim at protecting all children, taking their rights and welfare under guarantee.
Stressing that they always prioritize giving support to the education of children, Minister Selçuk said everybody in the society as well as universities, public and state sector have responsibilities and duties within this framework.
"Early childhood education must be constructed on three main bases. First, we must increase the quality of infrastructure of pre-school institutions, Second is increase the quality of teachers and education staff giving education to preschool students and third is the preparation of education contents," added Selçuk.