Main opposition CHP wary on mother tongue education

Okan Konualp ANKARA / Hürriyet

The government will need to have a law to allow education in the mother tongue, Kılıçdaroğlu says. DAILY NEWS Photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will wait to see the government’s draft law regulating education in the mother tongue in private schools before commenting on it, the party’s leader has said.

“The government will need to have a law approved to allow such a system,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said yesterday. “We will decide on whether to support the bill according to the content of the draft.”

On Sept. 30, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced as part of a “democratization package” that private schools in Turkey would be allowed to provide education in languages other than Turkish, a move considered to be made to please members of the Kurdish minority. However, after the announcement, Kurdish politicians insisted that education in one’s mother tongue should be available in public schools.

Constitutional change insistence

The CHP leader will meet his aides next week to debate which proposals of the ruling party the main opposition will support. The CHP will insist on a constitutional amendment as a requirement for education in the mother tongue, while also opposing the lifting of the ban on headscarves for teachers in primary schools.

The party will support lowering the 7 percent threshold for political parties to receive financial aid from the Treasury to 3 percent, the regulations on the use of the letters Q, W, and X, but will oppose all three options mentioned by Erdoğan on the country’s electoral system.