Administrators of all Anatolia High Schools have attended the third History, Culture and Civilization Awareness seminar organized in İstanbul as a part of seminars organized for school administrators by the Ministry of National Education.

 

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said during this keynote speech that they have founded an academy for school administrators in İstanbul and all school administrators will come to İstanbul within this framework.

 

Özer stressed that the last 20 years of Türkiye were crucial for the education system and the massification of education was achieved during this period.

 

"Schooling rate for 5 year old children which was 11 percent in the 2000s reached 93 percent today and schooling rate in secondary education which was 44 percent exceeded 90 percent. Schooling rate in higher education increased from 14 percent to 48,5 percent. Today, there are 19 million students in our education system which is higher than the population of approximately 150 countries," said Özer.

 

He reminded that reflection of social engineering projects of the 2000s caused damages in the education system and mentioned that the headscarf ban and coefficient practices were lifted during the last 20 years.

 

Özer stressed that all anti-democratic practices preventing accession to education were eliminated and damages were compensated during this period.

 

Noting that the OECD countries reached 90 percent in massification of education in the 1950s and Türkiye was 70 years late and achieved this process in the last 20 years.

 

Özer went on to say that, ""When we consider the results of international student surveys like PİSA and TIMSS, we see that Türkiye gradually increases its success in every cycle. These surveys rank mathematics and science literacy of 4th and 8th grade students. The quality of our education gradually increases and the last PISA survey shows that Türkiye ranks first in the list of countries which statistically increased mathematics and science literacy although it is the country which has the largest number of 15 year old students."

 

Özer reminded OECD General Secretary Mathias Cormann's social media message as, "The success of Türkiye should be an inspiration for others in the region."

 

Özer said that the number of teachers which was around 500 thousand was increased to 1,2 million and 59 -60 percent of existing teachers are women.

 

"Today, this country builds a different language and uses its own preferences from its culture, history and civilization, acts equally to its people without making any distinction between types of high schools and reinforces its human resources," stated Özer.

 

Özer mentioned that efforts of teachers and school administrators played an important role in adamantly and successfully continuing face-to-face education during the Covid-19 pandemic Kovid-19.

 

Referring to the purpose of history, culture and civilization awareness seminars, Özer recalled the famous saying of Ibn Khaldun which is "Geography is destiny".

 

"Let us learn our destiny. What is the language and history of this geography? Where do we come from and where are we going? What has happened, what were our struggles and what will they be? Is there a language that belongs to our history, culture and civilization? We want to discuss these in these seminars. Our goal is to review our perspective of our culture and blend it with our history and civilization. When we can make the connection with our culture, history and civilization, we will have a potential to say something different to the world," stated Özer.