Summer vacation starts for 18 million Turkish students
ANKARA
The 2021-22 education season has ended on June 17 in Türkiye, with over 18 million students starting their summer vacations after the distribution of the report cards.
School bells will ring once again with the start of the new season on Sept. 12.
Congratulating all the country’s students in a ceremony held in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan advised students not to forget that “vacation time is a great opportunity to learn new things.”
“While enjoying vacation, do not give up studying, researching,” he said. “Always learn… On the streets or computer.”
Noting that the Education Ministry has opened new summer schools across the country, Erdoğan asked students to enjoy doing activities in summer schools, too.
The president also highlighted that his government has prioritized spending most of the budget on education, saying, “These young people will construct the future of Türkiye. That’s why we said ‘Education’ for the last 20 years.”
The first break of the 2022-23 education season will be between Nov. 14 and 18, and the second break will be between April 17 and 20 in 2023.
The schools will be closed on June 16, 2023.
In the meantime, millions of students will break a sweat this weekend at the two-phased university qualification exams.
Some 3.2 million people will attend the first exam on June 18, which will last for 165 minutes. Some 2 million people will try to pass the second exam on June 19 to enter the country’s more than 200 universities.
The second exam will last for 180 minutes.
Halis Aygün, the head of the Center for Assessment, Selection and Placement (ÖSYM), the national body responsible for organizing the university entrance exams, underlined that “2022 is a record-breaking year.”
“The number of applicants is some 650,000 more than last year,” he said. “Students will be able to sit for the exams unmasked after two years. Those infected with COVID-19 will take exams in classes specially arranged for them.”
