📩 27/09/2023 14:01
The Ministry of National Education will offer high school students the opportunity to participate in skill-based courses in addition to academic courses. The certificates of students who complete the courses via face-to-face or distance education methods during their high school education and the practices they carried out in the 40-hour social responsibility programs will be recorded in their e-Portfolios.
Halil İbrahim Topçu, General Director of MEB Secondary Education Institutions, made statements about the social responsibility programs and skill-based courses that will be implemented for high school students.
Topçu said that, upon the instructions of the Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, they aim to implement an effective e-Portfolio system for all kinds of activities that students do in and out of school, as well as their academic courses.
Stating that they have started a new study in which high school students can take courses from 3 different institutions in order to gain some skills within the scope of "extra-curricular activities" in addition to academic courses, Topçu said that high school students first want to choose from a number of courses according to their interests and needs from the e-formal system of the General Directorate of Lifelong Learning. He explained that they could choose voluntarily.
Topçu said, “In addition, our students will be able to participate in package skill courses within the distance education modules of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) Academy. In addition, with the application prepared by our General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education, they will be able to choose from package skill courses where the theoretical part will be distanced and the practical part will be face-to-face. "The certificates of students who complete these courses will be added to their e-Portfolios." he said.
“Will have the opportunity to create a packaged skill set”
Topçu gave the following information about the 3 different course programs they have planned for students: “Our students will document the courses and present them to the school administration. Planning will be done by the school administration and the relevant documents will be recorded in our students' e-Portfolios by the school administration. Here, we want to encourage our students' individual learning and enable them to certify certain package skills. Our students will be able to acquire skills by choosing any of the e-non-formal courses according to their interests. Within the scope of lifelong learning, many courses that can address the interests and needs of students can be selected and taken from the e-widespread system of our General Directorate of Lifelong Learning. Therefore, if a student makes conscious planning, he will have the opportunity to create a packaged skill set for himself with the training he will receive through these courses, starting from the 9th grade until the 12th grade, and will be able to certify it.
At the same time, our General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education is working to provide certain package skills. When this study is completed, we are preparing an environment where our students can take the theoretical part in a digital environment and practice it in our vocational and technical Anatolian high schools. BTK also has such package programs. “Our students will be able to benefit from here too.”
Stating that they want to increase the number of institutions offering courses over time, in their work that they will start with three institutions, Topçu said, "If this culture becomes widespread, we can introduce our students to the contents of our different official institutions that will support e-learning." said.
General Manager Topçu said that they are conducting a comprehensive study on which courses students can take and that they will publish this study soon.
social responsibility program
Explaining that one of the applications related to the e-Portfolio system that they aim to implement is the club and social responsibility program in high schools, Topçu pointed out that, as the Ministry, they attach great importance to the participation of high school students in social responsibility program activities.
Topçu said, “Social responsibility program refers to the program that includes social responsibility activities and community service activities that students will carry out during secondary education. "We are starting a period in which these events will be processed more effectively in the Social Event Module." he said.
Stating that the social responsibility program is widely implemented in the education systems of many countries in the world, Topçu continued: “We aim to revive and popularize this culture. Thus, we want to enable our students to develop their social emotional skills as well as their academic skills. With this application, we aimed for our students to experience concepts such as communication, empathy, patience, negotiation, coexistence and cooperation, so that they can experience a holistic education process. “We are planning a very large working area that will enable them to share the reports they create regarding their social responsibility activities with their teachers and friends.”
“We plan to implement an effective e-Portfolio system in high schools”
Regarding social responsibility practices, Topçu gave the following information: “We introduced a 9-hour social responsibility duty to our students from the 40th grade until their graduation. In this practice, he/she will participate in some practices such as keeping watch in the library, introducing books to a fellow student, performing a service by accepting a responsibility in a part of the school, and helping a friend with lessons such as foreign language or mathematics. We will create space for our schools to engage in social responsibilities with both official and non-governmental organizations that carry out social responsibility programs. Our students will participate in the social responsibility program under the supervision of the school and in permitted environments.
Social responsibility practices are currently voluntary, but over time, when the culture is established, it will be turned into a mandatory practice for every student. Students' participation in these studies will be documented by the relevant official institutions, organizations and competent authorities. Studies and other activities within the scope of the social responsibility program will not be evaluated with points, but the certificates will be recorded in the student's e-Portfolio by the school administration. Thus, we plan to implement an effective e-Portfolio system in high schools.”
Topçu noted that the social activities committee in schools will actively operate and carry out the necessary planning in order to carry out social responsibility and community service practices.