A report prepared by the Education and Science Workers Union (Egitim-Sen) on the situation of education at the beginning of the 2006-2007-school term, has identified a shortage of teachers and classrooms as the primary problems continuing to face this sector.
The report also stressed that problems created by the ongoing shortage of both were only compounded with other obstacles in front of education, among them school reconstructions and repairs that could not be finalized in time to open the facilities for education.
Even more important though was the political staffing at schools, which came parallel to procedures such as internal exile, penalties and layoffs where thousands of education workers were aggrieved despite the shortages problem.
The report stressed that under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, staffing had been so political that it involved everyone from a school director in a remote village to the Ministry of Education itself - filling seats and positions with what it described as "racist-backward cadres".
According to Egitim-Sen, those who have survived through the political structuring are not that well off either because, says the report, "a large part of education workers are fighting for their life in poverty and under the limit of tolerable hunger."
Gloomy future for a new generation
Highlights of Egitim-Sen's report produced a gloomy list of "To-Do's" while recognizing that money was needed; yet the institution itself was expecting parents and private interests to make more contributions themselves.
In order for students to be able to be limited to 24-seat classrooms, for instance, at least 145,000 new classrooms have to be opened throughout the country. At current, even in Turkey's metropolitan centers, public schools operate in 40 to 50 children classrooms, which, says the report, adds up to poor quality education.
Increasing the number of teachers as well as schools and classrooms is an important priority for Turkey's education system but the report stresses that the share of education in the national budget is so low that it can hardly meet the obligatory needs of the system. It points out that relatives of students are pressed for money during registration and that the Ministry of Education every year places new economic burdens on parents.
Meanwhile, says the report, textbooks continue to be objects of profit despite, it notes, their being racist, backward and sexually discriminating in content.
The report's other findings appear to support this point.
* The total average period of education for the Turkish population is 5 years in a country where primary education is 8 years.
* Of those who cannot go to primary schools, 70 percent are girls.
And if readers of the report think the problem is limited only to primary and secondary education, Egitim-Sen reminds them that in the global comparative listing of building schools and investments in the field of higher education, Turkey's place is after that of Jordan and Chile.
"The universities have been placed under a total siege both in administration and politically" it says.
Yet, it notes, the number of university students in Turkey over the past decade has increased 50% - despite the fact that only 12 new universities, most of them private investments, were opened in the same period.
Defects compounded in Southeast
Regional discrimination appears to come into serious play whether due to economics, security risks or political and ethnic choice when it comes to educating the new generation either just to be literate or literate enough to seek active and integral roles in the society.
Turkey's Southeast region is most deprived in the field of education and Egitim-Sen's report highlights a national problem that has major implications in the undeserved regions.
A report in Monday's issue of the Batman Cagdas (Contemporary Batman) newspaper says that this supposedly oil-rich yet conflict-ridden province in Southeast Turkey is infested with education problems.
In summary, Batman's 137,000 students started their school term with important problems facing them.
Problem number 1: Though the national target is classrooms with 24 students/seats, and most schools have to use double classes for the same room, and (public) schools at Turkey's metropolitan centers average at 40-50 children per classroom some of Batman's schools have classrooms where 70 students sit together.
Problem number 2: Despite the 70/1 teacher ratio in some of the school classes, the city itself is short of at least 600 teachers and as the ratio itself reflects, 1,523 classrooms to make education efficient.
While both Egitim-Sen's Batman branch chairman Aziz Aksik and his counterpart at the Educationists Associations Union (Egitim-Bir-Sen) Safi Ozberk agree the teacher and classroom shortage is the most important priority in this city, they say other problems just make things more difficult.
Aksin says, for instance, that temporary assignee and paid teachers complicate things as it hinders education in major way and criticizes budgetary deficiencies that prevent schools from working around the clock. He says the government appears to prefer to work for capital rather than education.
Ozperk, on the other hand, stresses he feels "gloomy" in that a need for 1,523 new classrooms is not exactly what is available at hand. He says, also, that even secondary positions at schools such as cleaning workers are a rare prize and is concerned not just about the lack or quality of education, but the general health and well-being of students in an environment that is a risk to health. (KO/II/YE)
