New semester starts for 18 million students across Turkey
ANKARA
Nearly 18 million students across Turkey are starting the new school semester on Feb. 5 after a two-week break.
Students received their first-term report cards and began their two-week winter semester break on Jan. 20. Some parents and students went on a holiday, with ski tours in particularly high demand inside Turkey and abroad.
Thousands of Syrian schoolchildren are among those who will return to schools on Feb. 5. According to figures provided by UNICEF, nearly half a million Syrian refugee children are currently enrolled in schools across Turkey.
The Education Ministry announced that the new semester will end on June 8 and the new education year will start on Sept. 17 after a 3.5-month long summer break.
During the second semester, eighth-grade students will take the exam for the transition from primary to secondary education on June 2. Students will also take the new university entrance exam for the first time, which will take place on June 23 and June 24.
Additionally, the start of the new semester is expected to increase traffic congestion, particularly in Istanbul, which is among the most congested cities in the world.
Schools to start a week late in Turkey’s Hatay And Kilis
Meanwhile, schools in the southern provinces of Hatay and Kilis both on the border with Syria, are due to restart classes on Feb. 12, a week after the rest of the country.
Reyhanlı Mayor Hüseyin Şanverdi and the Kilis Governor’s Office announced the one-week delay on Feb. 4 on Twitter.
Kilis and Reyhanlı have both been hit by a number of rockets fired from across the border since the start of “Operation Olive Branch,” which Turkey launched on Jan. 20 along with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) against Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin in northwestern Syria.
The cross-border attacks, launched by the YPG, have killed seven people and injured at least 98.
