Turkey’s education system has collapsed because of AKP policies: CHP head

ANKARA

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The education system in Turkey has “collapsed” because the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policies, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said.

“They have formed a parallel education system. When we say this they get uncomfortable. Indeed, we are saying this to make you uncomfortable. What else can you say to a government that has handed the national education system over to a terrorist organization?” Kılıçdaroğlu said at a CHP “education workshop” on Sept. 7, referring to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.
 
Kılıçdaroğlu accused the AKP of letting Gülenists infiltrate into the Education Ministry, referring to Erdoğan’s comments in 2013 when he said: “we have given them whatever they [Gülenist movement] wanted.”
 
“When they wanted schools, the government gave them. When they wanted teachers, the government gave them. When they wanted land, the government gave it. When they wanted universities, the government gave them. But when teachers working in state schools wanted something, they received nothing,” the CHP head said.
 
“In that way they handed the education system over to a terrorist organization and this problem has not yet been solved,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.
 
Criticizing the system introduced by previous “4+4+4 year” compulsory education program, he said the new system “had not been prepared by experts.”
 
“The system was passed in parliament as a draft law. It was not discussed in cabinet, the Education Ministry, or the National Education Council, and it did not have a place in national development plans. It was passed with the signature of five lawmakers who are not even educators,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
 
“This in itself shows how the education system was massacred,” he added.
 
The CHP leader blasted the current system for not providing quality education for all, saying this resulted in considerable differences in education for different social classes.
 
“The rich send their children to private schools and the poor have to send their children to public schools. Rich families are able to spend 78 times more on their children’s education than poor families on average,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.