Minister Tekin met with journalists in Erzurum, made statements about the education agenda and answered questions.
Tekin stated that gastronomy high schools will record the food culture of the regions and bring it to the literature, and said that these schools were established to teach the preparation and presentation of local dishes and at the same time to contribute to regional tourism.
Tekin said, "Our other schools are standard. When you say Anatolian high school, both the ones in Çanakkale and Kars follow the same program. Vocational high schools are also the same. But the curriculum of all seven gastronomy high schools is different and depends on the culture of the geography in which they are located." he said.
"TWO PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HANGED A BANNER ON THE WALL OF THE SCHOOL"
Minister Tekin asked a journalist, "There was a demonstration with a banner in a school before your visit in Istanbul. Did you witness this incident? After the incident, it was reported in the press that two students were arrested. This process was discussed in the public opinion and social media, and some allegations were made that you were also a complainant. Did you have any complaints about the incident in question?" He also answered the question.
Stating that they visited Istanbul with the Provincial Director of National Education to see some works on site, Tekin stated that they went to the field to see how a pavilion in the garden of the relevant school, which belongs to the Ministry, will be evaluated.
Tekin said that while examining the mansion, he saw students from the school windows and that they visited the school upon the students' request and invitation.
Explaining that they chatted with students in two classes, Tekin said, "We made evaluations about the school. We chatted with the young people, took photos. Then I left the school. I did not see any protests, I did not see any protesting banners, nor was there any such unpleasant situation between us and the students." he said.
Explaining that after leaving the area, he was informed that the incident in question had occurred the night before, Tekin said:
"Two people who have nothing to do with being high school students hung a banner on the wall of the school at 01.30 the night before. While the security of schools is such a hot topic, someone is entering the school illegally at night. The right to protest does not mean sneaking into the school at night and doing such a thing. Naturally, the security cameras were examined in the morning. When we went there, this was already detected, the banner was removed and we did not see the banner. The school administration did not say anything to us about the banner. The banner was taken down and "The police have done their own research on who did this from the security camera footage."
"THERE IS NO PHOTO OF ME IN THE TEXTBOOK"
Stating that the people in question were university students and that they had never studied at the said high school, Tekin said:
"What's even weirder is that they go there because of political party affiliation. We say we won't bring politics into schools, we already prevent such emblems of parties. How will the police know that those who hung the banner there did not do something that would cause another kind of security problem? The incident is not dependent on a complaint. An ex officio investigation has been launched, I am not aware of the incident. Those who carried out the incident have nothing to do with that high school. Then someone comes along and says, 'The Minister complained.' he says. Lie. "I invite those who tell this lie to prove it."
"There is also an action that has been going on for a while, the removal of your photos from textbooks is an action." Tekin gave the following answer to the question:
"Can there be a photo of the Minister in the textbooks? What kind of logic is this, what kind of a lie is this? There is one example, I saw on social media. It is the Cultural Atlas of the Turkish World. It is not a textbook. Since it is not a textbook, there is an introduction article I wrote there. There is a one-page article explaining why we distributed this book even though it is not a textbook. The standard of the textbooks is clear. There is a main cover, the back cover, our National Anthem. Atatürk's Address to the Youth, Ataturk. This is the books, this is already in our regulations. There is no photo of me in the textbook."
"WE IDENTIFIED SCHOOLS WHERE A POLICE PRESENT AT ALL TIMES"
Minister Tekin answered the question regarding school security: "We do not have any intention or effort to station police in all schools. But we will take and are taking pedagogical measures in schools that coincide with academic principles." he replied.
Explaining that they have set a standard in schools in this context, Tekin stated that they have created a package of measures including security camera recordings and emergency buttons for the minimum measures that should be present in all schools.
Tekin said, "It varies depending on the nature of the region where the school is located, from high walls to turnstile system... It cannot be a recommendation to install a turnstile system in every school, but we have to take different precautions in such places, if the location of the school is an environment full of workplaces, a place close to a crowded hospital, or a place where we can say that no vehicle or anyone should enter the garden. We have categorized all our schools to take different measures in different regions." shared his knowledge.
Stating that there are maximum measures as well as standard measures, Tekin continued as follows:
"With maximum precautions, we talked to the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the region where the school is located. We identified the schools that need a police presence at all times. This is already the work we do every year. This year, we did it together with seven ministries. We evaluated the security measures in each of our schools from these aspects, such as the police waiting 24 hours a day in those schools or waiting when the school is open. We also took those measures.
What I mentioned about the measures to be taken in February was this; we said that we were working on a different method regarding the employment procedure. It is still one of the topics we talk about during budget negotiations. We bought it through TYP for this year. We are talking about next year, how we will include it in the 2027 budget. There are 31 thousand garden guards, but garden guards are not police after all. There is no license to carry weapons or anything like that anyway. "There are some regulatory issues there."
"WE SAID WE WERE GOING TO TAKE THE JOINT EXAM, IT IS NOT SOMETHING WE HAVE JUST ANNOUNCED"
Minister Tekin informed that the number of schools where intensive foreign language programs are implemented has reached 1110, and that in addition to the first foreign language, a two-hour-a-week second foreign language program will also be implemented.
Making a statement regarding the joint written exams, Tekin said:
"There are discussions in the public opinion about the grade point average between schools, the secondary education weighting average used for university entrance, and the grade inflation of private schools. We said that we are starting to create a mechanism where we can objectively measure the quality of education in schools. We started this while TEOG was being implemented and we said we would make it widespread. Joint examination practices continued. We have already been doing these as a pilot practice for two years.
We have already said that we will implement common exams in the mentioned courses this year. This is not something we just announced. I'm trying to provide objectivity here. If the exams are out of the curriculum of the Ministry of National Education, why does the school not implement the curriculum of National Education? "I'm sorry, this is not possible to sell your own publication."
Stating that they created a large data set supported by artificial intelligence with the Ministry Management System, Tekin said, "The common exam grades here will be reflected there as well, and therefore anomalies will come my way. I will say, 'There is a problem in a school in X province.' We will identify these and take the necessary steps. "There is nothing to object here in terms of the quality of education." made the statement.
Tekin responded to the criticism about holding the exam on November 10 by saying that the week of November 10 is the week when written exams will be held in schools, even though there is no written written plan.
Answering the question about the rumors about "the change in the practice of four-year classroom teachers in primary schools", Tekin stated that a different model related to specialization has become widespread in the world, and that there are demands for subject teachers to be included in some courses in some schools.
Tekin continued as follows:
"There is an expectation of specialization. So we ask our teachers, 'What do you think about this?' we ask. It is not something we have decided or said we will do as of now. We talked in a teacher's room and it became news from there. We said there that the primary school's 1st and 2nd grade groups are closer to each other in terms of age groups. Three and four are closer groups. Therefore, we ask our teachers' opinions about what it would be like if primary school teachers were divided into those who teach grades one and two and those who teach three and four.
This is still in the discussion stage. If necessary, our General Directorate of Basic Education organizes workshops regarding this matter. Maybe at the end of it, if the teacher friends do not want it, it will be given up. In other words, there is no concrete, mature or taken step from our Ministry regarding this issue at the moment, and it is not something that can be done from today to tomorrow anyway."
Tekin added that the application petition for the lawsuit they will file against Meta will also be submitted, and that they may bring other platforms to the agenda in the future.
