"The educational model has been prepared taking into account our rich history, culture and values."
"The educational model has been prepared taking into account our rich history, culture and values."
President Erdogan said at the presentation of the Educational Model of the Century of Turkey: "The educational model has been prepared taking into account our rich history, culture and values. Our model is focused on international standards and is aimed at meeting the needs of the modern world in advanced sciences and technologies."
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a speech at the Presentation of the Educational Model of the Century of Turkey, which took place at the Ahmet Keleshoglu Istanbul School in Atashehir. President Erdogan wished that the new model would benefit students, families, teachers, the country and the nation.
"WHEN WE STARTED SERVING TURKEY, ONE OF OUR FOUR PRIORITIES WAS EDUCATION."
President Erdogan expressed gratitude to all those who contributed to the preparation of the model: "21 years ago, when we started serving Turkey on behalf of our nation, we stated that one of our four priorities would be education. We have remained true to this promise until today. As every year, this year we have allocated the lion's share of the budget for education, assigning about 1 trillion 620 billion liras to it."
President Erdogan noted that they acted with the awareness that every penny spent on education is a significant investment in Turkey's bright future. He stressed that all possibilities were mobilized in order to provide children with a better and better education that meets modern conditions, and that the list of work done in the field of education is very extensive. President Erdogan said that if he tries to talk about all the services provided over the past year alone, it will take a long time, and that he finds it useful to share some brief figures with citizens.
"WE HAVE BECOME A BIG FAMILY OF 20 MILLION PEOPLE"
President Erdogan stressed that they have taken numerous steps to strengthen equality of opportunity in education, including conditional educational assistance, an increase in the number of dormitories and scholarships, free meals, free textbooks and support materials. He continued: "In the last year alone, 19 million 600 thousand educational materials were printed and distributed. This year, we delivered 20 million 385 thousand auxiliary textbooks for students in grades 8-12. Since 2003, we have completed the construction of 372,995 new classrooms and transferred them to our educational system. Over the past year, we have built 13,715 new classrooms. We have reduced the number of students in the class to 23 in primary education and 22 in secondary education. With these indicators, we are much closer to the OECD average. To strengthen equality of opportunity, we have increased the coverage rate of preschool education to 95% and primary education to 98%. We have become a large family of 20 million people, including about 19 million students, more than 1 million teachers and more than 74 thousand educational institutions.
" "THE MILLIONTH LESSON WILL BE HELD WITH THE APPOINTMENT OF 20 THOUSAND NEW TEACHERS"
President Erdogan stressed that this family is growing every year, and that they are the government that has appointed the largest number of teachers in the entire history of the Republic. He stated that they had strengthened the staff of teachers by appointing 800,000 new teachers. "In May 2023, we appointed 45 thousand teachers at the same time. Thus, we have made the biggest teacher appointment in our history. We have also completed the process of appointing 4,366 teachers with disabilities. This year we will further strengthen our educational system by appointing 20,000 new teachers. The Ministry of National Education conducts this process carefully and transparently," President Erdogan added.
President Erdogan noted that they support teachers not only in terms of appointments, but also in terms of rights and financial opportunities. He pointed out that they had increased the additional rates for teachers to 3,600, as promised. He also noted that they installed 619 thousand interactive whiteboards as part of the Fatih project and eliminated differences in university admission rates, as well as introduced a system 4+4+4 , which extended compulsory education to 12 years.
President Erdogan stressed that they stopped neglecting vocational schools and developed a Vocational Education Policy, launching various projects, from the creation of intra-sectoral schools to the organization of professionally oriented workshops in secondary schools. President Erdogan said that they have completed the preparation of a bill on the creation of the teaching Profession and the National Academy of Education, and that discussion will begin soon in Parliament.
"FROM A VERY YOUNG AGE, CHILDREN ARE SUBJECTED TO THE IMPOSITION OF A GLOBAL CULTURE"
President Erdogan recalled that they had introduced Qur'an, the life of the Prophet and various lessons as optional subjects, and that this year they had expanded the list of optional subjects by adding lessons on "etiquette and rules of conduct", "rules of conduct", "family in Turkish society" and satisfying requests from families.
President Erdogan, emphasizing the vital importance of the family, said: "Children are exposed to the imposition of a global culture from an early age. In the first place among these intrusions are projects to erase gender differences. Our children often encounter these projects in areas such as cartoons, movies, digital games, and social media. In the United States and many other Western countries, the main cause of concern for families is these perverse currents that turn children into objects. I believe that together we can stop the global scourge of erasing gender differences," he said.
President Erdogan said that they had fulfilled their promise to the Turkish people on education made 21 years ago, and noting that they were in a very good place not only in infrastructure, but also in international indicators, said that they would continue to add new achievements to these.
"THE MEANS TO ACQUIRE THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REQUIRED BY MODERNITY IS EDUCATION"
President Erdogan noted that the purpose of education is to educate young people with an open mind, a broad outlook, ready for innovations, able to use knowledge and information technologies correctly, possessing national values, self—confidence and ideals. Stressing that for this it is necessary to act with an understanding that does not miss the changes, but on the contrary, keeps up with them, President Erdogan continued: "The world is changing, and Turkey does not remain the same, so our education system cannot remain in place. We live in a time when something new happens every day, new ideas, discoveries and methods appear. Artificial intelligence and unmanned technologies are becoming a part of our daily lives. Individuals, societies and countries that are not being updated in response to the technological revolution are doomed to stay out of the global race. Those who do not keep up with the pace of the world cannot avoid falling further behind. The means to acquire the knowledge and skills required by modernity is education. Education itself involves change and renewal. When new knowledge appears, new questions and problems arise, needs are updated, and education must keep up with this, adapting to it."
President Erdogan, stressing that everyone is well aware that education is a continuous, lively and dynamic process, continued: "The main thing is not to lose roots when updating.
" "THROUGHOUT AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR HISTORY, UNFORTUNATELY, WE DID NOT HAVE OUR OWN EDUCATIONAL MODEL."
President Erdogan noted that it is important to preserve the idea of civilization, and that it is important to keep the country connected with its values in all conditions. President Erdogan continued: "For an important part of our history, unfortunately, we did not have our own educational model. Our education system was mainly based on memorization. She was focused on preparing for exams, not for life, and measured success only by this criterion. We ran an educational system that did not give due importance to art, sports, culture, literature, did not stimulate thinking, asking questions and research enough, and was focused mainly on formatting people. Another feature of this period was bans and unification. The road for vocational schools and schools of imams-khatibs was closed by a coefficient. Wearing the hijab was prohibited not only in schools, but also in universities and in public service. In our governments, we have waged the fiercest struggle against this very Jacobin, prohibitive and repressive mindset."
"WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE BAD HABITS OF OLD TURKEY TO BE REVIVED"
President Erdogan said that at every step towards the liberation of education, from the Fatih Project and the choice of subjects to the opening of secondary schools of imams-Khatib and the system 4+4+4 They faced resistance from certain circles, and continued: "I am speaking openly: someone in this country did not want the lifting of bans. They did not want to eliminate injustices. They did not want to enrich the curriculum. They didn't want to reduce the disparity between schools. Those whom they contemptuously called "the man scratching his stomach" never wanted the children of these people to have the same opportunities as them. They did their best to keep the poor poor, the oppressed oppressed, and the privileged privileged. They did everything to prevent real class changes in Turkey. We know that these circles are still grouped in areas such as the business world, politics, media and academia. Although their voices are no longer so audible, they take every opportunity they find."
President Erdogan said that looking back, sometimes their hearts bleed. President Erdogan, expressing regret for the mistakes of the past, said: "We regret the lost time and energy of our country due to ideological imposition. We regret the shattered dreams and clouded futures of our children. We regret the heartbreaking stories of our young people forced to choose between their beliefs and education, universities and careers. We regret how easy it was to violate the rights and freedoms of the vast majority for the sake of the privileges of a narrow group. We are ashamed of our democracy. We will not allow our people and our children to find themselves in such a situation that their rights, laws and freedoms are violated.
" "OUR GOAL IS TO HAVE AN ADVANCED GENERATION THAT WILL LEAD OUR COUNTRY TO THE VISION OF 2053 AND 2071"
President Erdogan noted that, both at the stage of preparation and at the stage of implementation of the "Century of Turkey" model, they intend to conduct a process involving everyone and involving everyone, and said: "We want the topic of education and training not to be dragged into current political disputes and not to be worn out. We are sincere and conscientious in this. We hope that those who oppose our new model only because of their prejudices, without appreciating its contribution to the upbringing of our children, will behave constructively."
President Erdogan noted that they are striving to make up for the lost time in education and training over many years, even decades, and continued: "We have mobilized all our capabilities to provide high-quality education, starting with the individual and the family, from family to society, from society to the nation. Based on the fact that the Republic of Turkey is a democratic State governed by the rule of law, we have first of all eliminated obstacles to education. There were many obstacles. We said: "Remove these obstacles," and remove them."
Stressing that they strive to create an education and training system that encourages students to read, research and reflect, President Erdogan continued: "The purpose of educational systems is to educate people with high communication skills, able to adapt to changes, effectively use information technology, peaceful, educated, knowledgeable, wise and free. Our goal is to have an advanced generation that will lead our country to the vision of 2053 and 2071, a generation focused on virtue, devoted to truth and truth."