Parents feed children through fences in northwest Turkey school amid state of emergency

BURSA

DHA photo

Parents of children at a school in the Osmangazi district of the northwestern province of Bursa are forced to feed their children behind fences due to restrictions introduced with the ongoing state of emergency. 

As part of decrees made during the state of emergency declared after Turkey’s failed July 15 coup attempt, all children receiving unbroken full-day schooling are not permitted to leave their school’s premises and parents cannot enter. 

Most children at the Şehit Onbaşı Tolga Taştan Elementary School had previously left school to go home for lunches. 

Doğan News Agency reported that meals are currently served in the school’s cafeteria and canteen, but high prices and low quality have led many parents to take extraordinary measures.

Many parents who can no longer bring their children home for lunch have therefore taken to feeding them through the school’s surrounding fences. 

Claiming that the service in the cafeteria is not good, parents have complained that the fee is expensive considering the quality of the food. 

“Last year the administrators were sending students home to eat lunch. They allowed this and there were no problems,” several parents told Doğan News Agency, adding that they now cannot enter the school due to security measures introduced with the state of emergency, announced after the failed coup attempt, believed to have been masterminded by the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

“The school administration now directs us to the cafeteria or the canteen. But the food there is not good and it is expensive. So nearly 150 parents are now obliged to feed their children through the school’s fences. We are wondering what we’ll do in the winter,” they also said. 

Meanwhile, the Bursa provincial directorate for education has stated that the measures have been taken for the safety of the schools.

“This practice was adopted for the safety of students and the school as a part of the state of emergency. We can say it’s a temporary practice,” the directorate told Doğan News Agency.