The Ministry of National Education has been carrying out projects concerning social and economic integration of Syrian refugees who are under the temporary protection of our country through vocational education.

 

Recent stages of the projects and new steps which will be taken for the integration of Syrian refuges were discussed during a meeting chaired by the Deputy Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer. Among the other participants of the meeting were Director General for Vocational and Technical Education  Kemal Varın Numanoğlu, Director General for Secondary Education Cengiz Mete and Provincial Directors of National Education of cities which are playing host to the majority of Syrian refugees namely Hatay, Gaziantep, İstanbul, Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş, Osmaniye, Mersin, Bursa, Adana and Kilis.

 

SEUP and IMEP projects aiming at Social and Economic Adaptation through Vocational and Technical Education were discussed during the meeting. Steps taken in an effort to allow Syrian refugee's to enroll in vocational education which will help them access the labor market was another important topic of the meeting.

 

Stressing that Turkey is the country which hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, Deputy Minister Özer stated, "We have achieved important success in enrolling Syrian children at the school age in education institutions. Our Ministry has been successfully carrying out many projects for the increase of the schooling rate among refugee children. Number of Syrian children in our schools is higher than the total number of students in many European Countries. In the last three years, we have focused on social and economic adaptation through vocational and technical education and we have been carrying out many international projects in this regard."

 

Deputy Minister Özer talked about the opportunities vocational education centers provide for the integration of Syrians to the labor market adding that; "Students are going to school one day in a week and received skill education in workplaces during the other days of the week. Vocational education centers are paying one third of the minimum wage to students during the four yearlong education period. Moreover, there is no age limit to enroll in these centers. Currently, 3 thousand out of total of 150 students or in other words 2 percent of students who enrolled in these centers are Syrian refugees. Our goal is to increase this figure to 10 percent until the end of this year."