Most elected course math, ministry says

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Classes such as “The Quran and the life of the Prophet Mohammed” have entered the secondary school curriculum as electives as part of the new education system. Hürriyet photo

Contrary to media reports, the most frequently selected elective course in Turkish secondary schools for the new school year was applied mathematics, followed by foreign languages, the new Quran course, a course on the life of the Prophet Muhammad and sports and physical activities, an official from the Education Ministry said Sept. 24.

“It is not true that the most-selected elective course in Turkey was the life of the Prophet Muhammad, as was stated in some news outlets. The most-selected elective course was an applied mathematics course,” Undersecretary of Education Emin Zararsız told Anatolia news agency. Media reports on the number of imam hatip schools (religious vocational junior high and high schools) that were newly opened this academic year were also not correct, Zararsız said.

As of last Friday evening, the selection process for elective courses was finalized, all the data had been processed in the electronic system and the ministry had exact data, the official said. “The new ‘living languages and dialects’ courses were the least-selected among the offered elective courses, which is natural because these are courses in languages that are spoken only in certain regions, and only people from those regions selected them,” Zararsız said. In Turkey as a whole, 495,000 students chose the applied mathematics course, 413,000 chose foreign languages, 402,000 selected Quran, 256,000 selected the life of the Prophet Muhammad and 21,000 selected living languages and dialects, according to figures provided by Zararsız.