Governors to adjust morning school hours for students to utilize daylight

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s Education Minister has given the authority to each governor’s office in the country to determine school start time in the mornings on their own, asking them to take their province’s specific climate and geographical conditions into account so that students can make more use of the daylight.

It did not give information in its circular letter about the last hour of the school day. 

The ministry put the new regulation into effect shortly before the 2017-2018 education kicks off on Sept. 18 for nearly 18 million elementary, middle school, and high school students in the country after about a three-month-long summer break. 

The regulation came into effect after many students last year had problems when Turkey shifted to “permanent summer time,” meaning the clocks would no longer go back an hour in the country in the autumn and winter. 

With the new hours, students last year started their days in pitch dark during the winter, which caused difficulty especially when commuting. 

The ministry also said in its notice to the governor’s offices they should take into account that there will be “no shift to winter time in the 2017-2018 school year.”
 
Accordingly, the Istanbul Governor’s Office announced on Sept. 14 new plans to avoid the problems experienced last year, saying that classes of kindergartens and middle schools in the province would not start earlier than 8 a.m., Doğan News Agency reported.

“As a result of meetings conducted with relevant institutions, especially school administrations, parents, and school shuttle companies, it has been decided that schools that are run with a double shift schooling system in our province should start at a later time. Within this context, it has been decided for the 2017-2018 education year that the kindergartens and middle schools that have double shifts in our province should not start earlier than 8 a.m.,” it said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, Istanbul’s public transportation provider, the Istanbul Electricity, Tramway and Tunnel General Management (İETT), announced on Sept. 13 that public transport will be free of charge in the province on Sept. 18 from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. in a bid to ease traffic on the first day of school.