Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer met with representatives of 4 education unions. After the meeting, Özer made statements about how the education and training processes will be carried out in 10 provinces and 71 provinces affected by the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş, and announced that education was suspended until 10 March in 1 provinces affected by the earthquake, and that district and school-based decisions will be taken after 1 March. Minister Özer stated that education will start on 71 February in 20 provinces.
Minister Ozer; Latif Selvi, General Secretary of Education-Bir Sen at the Ministry of National Education, met with Talip Geylan, President of Turkish Education-Sen, Nejla Board, President of Education-Sen, and Kadem Özbay, President of Eğitim-İş. Deputy Ministers Petek Aşkar and Sadri Şensoy as well as general managers attended the meeting.
After the meeting, Özer made a statement on how the education and training processes will be carried out in 10 provinces and 71 provinces affected by the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş. Stating that he received the views of union representatives and all stakeholders, Minister Özer said, “First of all, it should be known that as the Ministry, we are trying to bring all our children together with their schools safely. We are a huge family with 19 million students, 1,2 million teachers. Therefore, it is not possible to normalize Turkey without normalizing education as in the pandemic. Our priority is to restart education in a safe and healthy way in these 10 provinces. Some of the decisions we made today were decisions we made earlier. We went over it with union representatives in agreement. I would like to share with you the decisions we have taken.” said.
Schools will open in 71 provinces on February 20
Underlining that education activities will start on February 71 in 20 provinces that are not earthquake zones and there will be no further extension, Minister Özer said: “We do not seek attendance at all classes and levels in the second term in 10 provinces. We've explained this before. We have done the necessary work and opened the system so that our students in 10 provinces can transfer their children to equivalent schools in 71 provinces if their parents request it. So far, 809 students have received their transfers. As the Ministry, we continue to work on increasing the capacity of our schools in 71 provinces so that we can meet all the demands of our students from 10 provinces.”
Private education institutions will give full scholarships to students coming from 7 provinces at the rate of 10 percent of their students.
Sharing the decisions regarding the granting of scholarships to earthquake-affected students in private education institutions, Özer said, “Our private education institutions have the opportunity to benefit the relatives of martyrs and veterans up to 3 percent of their capacity, and students with full scholarships for those in need. In this context, all our private education institutions use 3 percent capacity. We also made the necessary meetings with our private education institutions. The authority to increase 3% to 10% rests with the Minister of National Education. As of today, we are increasing the capacity of 3 percent in private education institutions to 10 percent, and we will use 7 percent for students from only ten provinces. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all association officials and representatives in our private education institutions.” used the phrases.
Damage assessment of MEB buildings in the earthquake zone will be completed by the end of February.
The Ministry has 10 buildings in 20 provinces with schools, hostels, teachers' houses and practice hotels; Sharing the information that 868 of them were demolished and 24 buildings were heavily damaged, Özer continued: “We discussed the damage assessment of all our buildings in the region with our Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. We will be finished by the end of February. In other words, we will take out the entire list of usable lightly damaged, moderately damaged buildings. Therefore, we are suspending education in 83 provinces until 10 March. After completing these deficiencies by March 1, we will start to reevaluate the process. As of March 1, we will not make decisions to open regional education in 1 provinces. We will make district and school-based decisions, just like in the days of the Kovid epidemic. There is no damage in some of our provinces, especially in Kilis, Adana, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır, and in some of our provinces and districts. Therefore, we will start those districts completely in education. As of March 10, we will share the decisions of this with the public. On the other hand, we will switch to dual education in 1 provinces where needed. In other words, we will use the capacity in a maximum and efficient way. Also, you know, there are meeting places and tent centers in 10 provinces right now. We set up tents to support our children's learning, provide psychosocial support, organize activities, normalize life and especially support them in play activities by setting up additional tents at all gathering places and tent centers. So far, we have set up 10 tents for this purpose. All our teachers, from pre-school teachers to guidance and psychological counselors, work in each tent. Therefore, I hope we will finish it in 141 provinces, by the end of next week, maybe within a week. Additional mechanisms that will support our children in all ten provinces will be put into effect at the meeting place.”
“The Ministry of National Education mobilizes with all its means”
Stating that the Ministry was mobilized with all the means of the Ministry of National Education in this process, Minister Özer said that while planning the education and training, on the one hand, the entire team of the Ministry, all teachers, volunteer teachers and MEB AKUB teams, from food and beverage to the classification of the materials needed by the citizens in the region, from search and rescue efforts to other needs. He said he was actively working.
Minister Özer said: “As the Minister of National Education, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all our teachers, who leave their comforts day and night without saying anything, and join in with our citizens in the field and strive to be a cure for their problems. In this context, we increase our capacities that we serve every day. We produce hot meals for approximately 2 million people per day. 465 thousand of our citizens stay in our schools, YBOs, practice hotels and dormitories. 465 thousand of these 25 thousand citizens are outside of ten provinces, because we provide all kinds of support for the accommodation of our citizens who go out of ten provinces. Again, approximately 5 thousand search and rescue teams of the Ministry of National Education support AFAD in the field. Other aid supports rescue efforts. Again, 2 guides and psychological counselors are actively trying to provide support services for the psychological well-being of our citizens, children and teachers. Hopefully, as of Monday, we will increase 2 thousand to 4 thousand and we will reach all points quickly.”
Stating that they are working to manage the education and training processes together in continuous consultation with all stakeholders, Minister Özer expressed that he expressed his sincere gratitude to all the employees of the Ministry. Stating that they have been in constant communication with the education union officials since the first day, Özer said that they took measures quickly in line with the data they transferred from the field, and that they managed this process with the state, the nation, unity and solidarity.
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