Syrians who are under temporary protection should receive a certificate showing that they have A2 level Turkish language proficiency in order to enroll in vocational education centers. Due to this reason, many Syrian were suffering from difficulties in vocational education accession. As a result of a step taken in an effort to solve this problem, A2 Turkish language proficiency certificate obligation was lifted. Within this context, intensive Turkish classes will be provided in the first year of the education. Those who have A2 language certificate will be exempted.

 

Deputy Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said: "Our country is playing host to the largest number of Syrians in the entire World. We have taken important steps for the accession of Syrian children to education institutions. Our Ministry has been successfully implementing many projects for increasing schooling rate in all grades among Syrians. There are more Syrian students in our education system than most European Countries. Due to this reason, we are implementing new projects in an effort to increase the variety and quality of education services provided for Syrians. Especially for the last three years, we focused on social and economic adaptation through vocational and technical education and we are carrying out many international projects within this framework. We had organized meetings during April and June in order to make detailed assessment about these projects. As a result of these meetings, we have solved another important problem."

 

Stressing that vocational education centers have been providing opportunities for Syrians especially in their integration to the labor market, Özer went on to say: "As is known, vocational education center students are going to school once a week and they receive skill training programs in workplaces during the rest of the week. These students are getting one third of minimum wage throughout their four yearlong education. Moreover, being a secondary school graduate is the only condition to enroll in these centers and there is no age limit. In this light, these centers are providing an important opportunity to adult Syrians to have a place in the labor market. Currently, only 3 thousand of 150 thousand students enrolled in these centers are Syrians. In other words, 2 percent of students in these centers are Syrians. Our goal is to increase this number to 10 percent in 2021."