Draft education bill concerns food firms

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The Education Ministry is implementing a ‘mobile education system, which refers to carrying children from rural areas with no schools to central points every day. Hürriyet photo

Yesidef, the national food industry federation, is concerned by the possibility of distance learning for children after the first eight years of primary school proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“If the rising concerns are righteous and if children do not go to school but stay home, then this will also cause problems for us,” Ahmet Hakan Ay, the deputy general manager of Yesidef, told Doğan news agency during a recent interview.

Noting that the details about the draft bill were still obscure, Ay said schools, high schools and mobile-teaching primary schools in particular, have a big share in the overall revenues of the food industry.
Within the scope of the mobile education systems, children in rural places without public schools are transported to primary schools in central locations every day.

“The companies [working with mobile-schools] have made certain amounts of investments and have designed their plants accordingly,” he said.

Making light of the issue, he said, “If things will go online, then workers at the [food] plants may also work online. Then, food will be replaced by drug capsules.”

Separately, Faruk Köprülü, head of Private Courses’ Union (Özdebir), said his association preferred the continuous education system, despite the fact that the government’s bill promises 10 percent growth in revenues for private courses.

“The annual volume of the private courses sector is $1.5 billion and may grow more in such a case,” he told daily Akşam. “However, the benefits to the country are the priority.”