Schools to deliver digital report cards in 2021

ANKARA

The Education Ministry is considering options for schools to avoid delivering report cards face to face and provide digital report cards instead to students for the ongoing academic year, Education Minister Ziya Selçuk said on Dec. 30.

“We have no intention of increasing mobility by giving face to face report cards. There will be digital report cards,” Selçuk told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The vaccination against COVID-19 will greatly facilitate the reopening of schools, he said. “It [COVID-19 vaccine] will pave the way for us to conduct face to face education,” Selçuk said, noting that after vaccination of high-risk groups, including the elderly and health professionals, teachers can get vaccinated if they wish.

The minister emphasized that normalization in a society cannot be achieved without reopening of schools. “For getting back to normal, we first need to take care of schools.”

Elaborating on some countries’ reopening of schools during the pandemic, Selçuk said Turkey had to resume distance learning considering the country’s structure and social habits.

“We did not open schools because we have to look at the socio-anthropological picture of our conditions, the structure of our country, our social life, our weddings and funerals, all of them,” he stated.

“When we look back, I can say that we are satisfied with most of the work,” the minister stated.

The distance learning capacity of Turkey was 100,000 at the beginning, and the number has exceeded 3 million now, he said.

Turkey resumed its distance learning education system as of Nov. 20 until Jan. 4, 2021, after partially reopening schools on Sept. 21. Remote learning will continue through national broadcaster TRT’s Education Information Network (EBA) channels and live courses, while all teachers can carry out live lessons through the EBA.