Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişçi signed the cooperation protocol between their ministries about village public centers.

 

Minister Özer reminded during his speech that vacant village schools were turned into kindergartens, primary schools and village public centers during the summer and they were used as education centers for adults.

 

Özer said that his Ministry is also organizing training programs and courses for adults in addition to giving formal education to children and young people.

 

"In the last twenty years, under the leadership of President Recep Erdoğan, our country achieved an important transformation and made preparation for Türkiye's Century. For the first time in the history of Türkiye, the schooling rate in all levels of education exceeded 90 percent. Schooling rate of five year old children which was 11 percent in 2000s reached 97 percent. Schooling rate in primary school is 99.63 and schooling rate in secondary school is 99.44; schooling rate in secondary education increased from 44 percent to 95 percent. Our education system has 19.1 million students and 1.2 million teachers," stated Özer.

 

Özer noted that his Ministry is adamant to support development training programs of all people and their goal is to reach 1 million people every month during 2022.

 

Özer went on to say that, "We have reached 10 million and 500 thousand people within ten months. We will organize more than 3 thousand courses and 12 million people will attend these programs until the end of this year."

 

Özer reminded that 2,000 vacant village schools were reopened within two months adding that, "The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry supported us to update agricultural information provided to villagers during training programs. Till now, 15 thousand people attended training programs about agriculture and husbandry. The protocol will allow us to organize different training programs about agriculture and husbandry, update training programs, make production and use the income of these production to support female employment rates. There will be no more closed village schools in Türkiye until the end of this year."

 

The protocol aims at organizing general, vocational and technical course programs and developing agriculture, horticulture, forestry, agriculture technologies, food and husbandry training programs in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

 

Another goal of the protocol is to produce agricultural products in the practice lands of village schools with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and income from the trade of these products will be used by the local directorates of national education. Women cooperatives will be integrated into the village public centers in order to blend education with the labor market.

 

Village public centers are also used as kindergarten, primary school, course center, library and workshop in line with needs. Children get their education and have the opportunity to learn the experiences of elders in these centers which became the center of culture transfer.

 

Minister Özer noted that 123 vocational high schools have the capacity to produce agricultural products in a soilless environment under LED light and soilless system infrastructure will be completed within 2022 in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

 

Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişci said education is essential for productivity and quality production.

 

Kirişçi stated that they will establish the "Agriculture and Forestry Youth Council" as a part of Türkiye's Century vision adding that, "I am sure that, we will see young people working at agricultural lands, yards, stables and barns rather than people who are over 55. Young people will earn money and live a comfortable life in nature. Support for women will bring families together in the rural areas."

 

Following the speeches, Kirişçi and Özer signed the cooperation protocol.  

 

As a part of the protocol, training programs will be organized at the labs, education centers and research institutes defined by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

 

Education centers affiliated to the ministries will be used during the education programs which will be designed according to a joint schedule. Both ministries will organize joint activities and awareness campaigns about vocational and technical education.

 

Developments in the agriculture technologies, smart agriculture, digital agriculture and soilless culture will be among the subjects of the training programs.