System and the facts

Tuğba Aydın

The closure of prep schools continues to be on the main agenda of the country even after a month, and columnists discuss the issue and the Turkish education system in their columns.

Despite strong public opposition, the government repeated last Monday its insistence on transforming prep schools, known as dershanes, into private schools, after a Cabinet meeting.

Since the prep school debate started, many campaigns have been held via social media with the participation of large numbers of people expressing their displeasure about the dershane ban. The number of the tweets sent as part of the social media campaigns has reached about 60 million in three weeks, with hashtags like #DemokrasilerdeKapatmaYOK (There is no closure in democracies) and #HürTeşebbüseDARBE (Blow to free enterprise).

Radikal columnist Deniz Zeyrek shares his views on two different schools, one a private school and the other public. Zeyrek writes that private schools have lots of facilities while public schools lack even necessary equipment. If there some of teachers were not devout, it would be very difficult for public-school students to be successful in examinations. The government should not perceive all the criticism aimed at it as an attack, and it should focus on the problems in the education system, Zeyrek says. Unless the problems are solved in the education system and the standard of life for teachers is bettered, the discussion on the closure of prep schools may not end, Zeyrek adds.

Milliyet's Güngör Uras shares his research on prep schools across the country. There are 3,830 prep schools in Turkey and around 50,000 teachers are employed in those schools. Of about 5 million students who go to secondary school, 10.3 percent went to prep schools during the 2012-2013 academic year. Uras says the Hizmet movement has around 950 prep schools, and they have lots of students from different circles of society at those schools because of the quality of education there.

Published on Today's Zaman, 09 December 2013, Monday