Class split after parent rejects mixed-sex seating in Turkey’s south

ANTALYA – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A class at a primary school in the Mediterranean province of Antalya has been split into two, after a teacher rejected a demand from the parents of a seven-year-old female student that she be exempt from sitting with male students in the classroom. 

The parents of the female student, identified only by the initials M.K., did not allow their daughter to attend the primary school in Antalya’s Döşemealtı district after the teacher, identified only as G.K., drew up a seating plan in which some of the male and female students sat together.

With a joint decision, the school administration and the Döşemealtı District Education Directorate split the class into two using a lottery method, appointing a new paid teacher to one of the two classes.

Some of the students, including M.K., were taken to the class of the newly appointed teacher, but the parents of a number of other students in the same class opted to boycott the new teacher by not sending their children to school, demanding that they attend the original class.

One parent of a student, Hasan Tutan, said all students in the new class apart from M.K. wanted to attend the original class. 

“Our children don’t want to go to school anymore. If this problem isn’t solved, I won’t send my son to school,” Tutan said.

His wife, Sevgi Tutan, also protested the move.

“Our children want their previous teacher. What’s more, M.K.’s parents were called in by the school administration and M.K. was placed in the new class. Her parents, however, removed her again when they saw her sitting with a male student again,” she said.

Another parent, Sevim Bacak, said they did not want the school administration to adopt the double-class practice, adding that they would refuse to send their children to school for a week if the issue was not solved.