Court rejects bill annulment

ANKARA

The main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) appeal for the annulment of a controversial new education bill on procedural grounds was unanimously declined by the Constitutional Court yesterday.
However, the party has said it will renew its petition to the court, this time asking that the law be annulled due to its content.

“We will issue another petition to the court on the grounds that the context of the law violates our Constitution,” Emine Ülker Tarhan, the CHP’s deputy parliamentary group leader, said in a written statement after the court’s verdict was released late Thursday afternoon.

The law, which extends compulsory education from eight to 12 years, also reinstates the secondary stage of the imam-hatip religious schools. It has also faced harsh criticism for potentially opening the door for conservative parents to remove their daughters from high school in favor of home study. It drew negative reactions from the main opposition party on the grounds that it was a blow to “the democratic and secular state.”

The CHP’s first petition was based on an argument that most articles of the bill were approved without any debate in Parliament’s Education Commission.