Emphasizing that the Ministry of National Education is the unit that will build the Century of Türkiye, the Minister said that one of the biggest stakeholders is the sector representatives. Tekin stated that more than 200 thousand events were held in 56 thousand official institutions affiliated to the Ministry on the 100th anniversary of the Republic.

 

Expressing that the Republic Day events were celebrated with a bit of bitterness, even though it was the 100th anniversary, Tekin talked about the genocide they are witnessing in Palestine. Tekin stated that he believed that the international organizations responsible for protecting peace and fundamental rights and freedoms in the world did not fulfill their responsibilities. Noting that international mechanisms such as the United Nations and the ECHR, which came into play in other inhumane treatments, were ineffective in Israel's intervention against Palestine, which amounted to genocide.

 

Stating that he found President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement that he would take the necessary initiatives in the international community to "declare Israel as a war criminal" meaningful, Tekin expressed that he will consider universal texts produced by the United Nations and conceivable international texts such as the Geneva Convention dysfunctional and serve for a political and ideological causes if international structures do not declare Israel as a war criminal. Tekin asked the United Nations or other international mechanisms to declare Israel as a war criminal.

 

Minister Tekin emphasized the importance of cooperation with members of TOBB Education Council in education. Explaining that TOBB and other local chambers build schools and contribute to the education and training processes by meeting the equipment needs of schools, Tekin emphasized they need support for the development of the physical infrastructure of education environments.

 

Emphasizing that the support of stakeholders is important in addition to what can be done with the share allocated from the annual general budget, Minister Tekin said that there will be a further relief when the rate of private schools reaches around 20 percent. Minister Tekin thanked the owners, founders and representatives of private schools and private education institutions.

 

Yusuf Tekin touched upon the success of project schools in vocational high schools established as a result of the studies in 2013. Explaining that they paved the way for qualified people in the sector to teach in these schools, Tekin reminded that in 2016, they started the process of paying the insurance expenses of students who went to businesses for internships by the public authority. Stating that there are 1 million 92 thousand 536 students in vocational and technical Anatolian high schools, 1 million 264 thousand in vocational education centers, and a total of 2 million 660 thousand 291 students in private schools, Minister Tekin evaluated that with the functional evaluation of this capacity, the sector will not need personnel and children will not have concerns about their future. Expressing that they want to take the cooperation with TOBB even further in order to manage such a large workforce, Minister Tekin said that they want to take measures to make vocational high schools more attractive and to ensure that students here are employed in attractive environments after graduation.

 

Announcing they took some measures to solve the acute problems experienced in private education institutions during the summer months, Minister Tekin stated that he brought up many problems at the Cabinet Meeting, especially the reduction of SSI premiums of teachers working in private schools to at least the same rates as in the public sector. Noting that he has an additional proposal on this issue, Tekin said that they are studying the use of vacant quotas of private schools, especially by public schools and by the Ministry of National Education and will carry out this initiative with mutual understanding.

 

Stating that during his term as Undersecretary, they emphasized the public-private school scale above the OECD average and started the practice of private schools receiving public incentives until they reach a certain level, Tekin noted that although the process may have been interrupted due to reasons such as pandemics and earthquakes they will resume on.

 

Explaining that they are trying to heal the wounds of the destruction in the earthquake zone with a budget of approximately over 100 billion dollars, Tekin stated that it may take time for the measures they propose regarding economic issues to be accepted since the government allocates a significant part of its resources to the earthquake region.

 

Stating that the social media posts made by private schools, which claimed that the Ministry of National Education sent the books printed by the Ministry to scrap in their unopened packages, caused outrage in the public, Minister Tekin stated that such events turned the positive atmosphere about private schools into negative. Asking the business world to take precautions against such negative examples, Minister Tekin stressed that they can only achieve results if they all embrace the practices they have initiated.

 

"As the business world, we want to meet the need for qualified human resources from vocational high schools and vocational training centers."

Noting that education is the basic building block of a society, the President of TOBB Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that they started to work together with the public and private sectors in vocational education. Stating that thanks to the Vocational Education Cooperation Protocol signed with the Ministry of National Education, they manage 128 vocational high schools across Türkiye. Underlining that they want to meet the qualified human resources they need from vocational high schools and vocational training centers, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that, with Minister Tekin's vision, they continue to work to make vocational education a center of attraction for young people, parents and the for the business world.

 

Expressing that significant progress has been made in the field of education in Türkiye in recent years, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that their main focus should be on the quality of education in the second century of the Republic. Noting that the main element of the quality of education is the teacher, Hisarcıklıoğlu assessed that the digital environments and skills should be used effectively in the learning process for the integration with the increasingly digitalizing world.