Quality education assures Turkey’s bright future, Erdoğan says

ANKARA

Quality education is a solid assurance for Turkey’s bright future and its social and economic development, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, vowing they will not allow any new ideological obstacles against the education for girls.

“Education but especially quality education is a solid assurance for the bright future of Turkey. Our children deserve the best. Education is the only way for our country to reach the best places,” Erdoğan told at an opening ceremony of vocational training centers at organized industrial zones on Jan. 10 in Ankara.

Education has been one of four main pillars on which his government focused on for the development of Turkey since he came to power in late 2002, Erdoğan said, explaining that education has always been a secondary issue for the previous governments.

“The money allocated for education in 2002 was 7.5 billion Turkish Liras whereas this figure is now 284 billion liras,” he informed, saying, “We allocated the lion’s share of the budgets we prepared to education.”

Criticizing the staunchly secular government and bureaucratic mentality that sought to ban religious education and undermine the role of religious vocational schools, Erdoğan stressed: “We increased the schooling of girls in education by removing the oppressive practices. Girls and our boys now have equal access to education. We know that some circles are uncomfortable with girls’ access to education. But we will not allow any new obstacles to the schooling of our girls.”

“I would like to urge those who wish a new dicta regime. Everyone has seen on the night of July 15 how committed the Turkish people are when it comes to protecting rights and freedoms,” Erdoğan said, referring to the coup attempt in 2016 at the hands of FETÖ.

Erdoğan also stressed that his government would never allow any move to prevent children from learning about their religion and culture, regardless of their age.