‘Mother tongue class less than expected’

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

So far about 18,000 people have demanded education in mother tongue and there is a serious decrease in demand Minister Ömer Dinçer says. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

Turkish Education Minister Ömer Dinçer said the demand for mother tongue education was much less than had been expected and the final data would be released in a few weeks.

“The data we obtained show that there is a serious decrease in demand [for mother tongue education]. Only Kurmanji [a Kurdish dialect] and Zazaki are demanded, and about 18,000 people demand them. I cannot give more specific information since every school declares its own records, and statistical data is still required,” Dinçer said at an opening ceremony in Istanbul yesterday.

Speaking about PKK attacks on educational institutions in the east, Dinçer said the PKK aimed to harm Turkey’s education system.

“We are talking about the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] as a terrorist organization, and the subject of terrorism has many dimensions. I can say that the main target is to harm education,” Dinçer said, adding that the families in southeastern and eastern Turkey wanted their children to receive education and reacted against the attacks.

According to him, the PKK was not expecting such determination.

“Even though the terrorist organization tried hard to hinder education, they faced the people’s resistance.”