Ministers discussed education cooperation between Türkiye and Montenegro during the meeting held in MEB Tevfik İleri Meeting Hall. 

 

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer expressed his happiness to host his counterpart and the delegation from Montenegro and reminded that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's historical visit to Montenegro last year has boosted Türkiye and Montenegro relations.

 

"Education is among the most important ways that boost ties between countries. I will be happy to carry our education relations to a higher level with Montenegro where more than tens of thousands of our people live. Till now, 451 students from Montenegro studied in our country with different scholarships. In 2022, 186 Montenegrin students enrolled in higher education institutions in Türkiye and 85 of them studied with Turkish scholarships.  We have granted scholarships to Montenegrin university students in Türkiye in the 2022-2023 school year. We have developed six sister school relationships between the schools of our countries. Moreover, the education consulate in the Turkish Embassy in Podgorica was opened last October in order to boost education relations," said Minister Özer. 

 

Özer went on to say that, "Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Education signed in 2012 provided us the opportunity to boost ties between two countries. For example, TİKA which has been carrying out activities in Montenegro since 2007, has implemented approximately 400 projects that are worth more than 20 million euros and 27 of these projects were about education. I would like to remind that we are ready to share experiences and give support to education. Our goal in the transformation in education was to reach all parts of the society and increase the quality of education."

 

Özer said that it required a big investment and determination to achieve such a transformation in a large education system made up of 19 million students and 1.2 million teachers adding that the Ministry set four main priorities namely; disseminating of preschool education, reducing opportunity differences between schools, supporting professional development of teachers and reinforcing vocational education.

 

Noting that they are ready to share all kinds of experience concerning the transformation achieved in Türkiye in recent years, Özer stated that his Ministry can provide training programs for trainers in the digital platforms.

 

Meanwhile, Montenegro's Minister of Education Miomir Vojinovic expressed his happiness about his visit to Türkiye and reminded that President Erdoğan's visit to Montenegro has a historical importance.

 

The Montenegrin Minister stated that he wanted to host Minister Özer and a delegation from the Ministry in his country.

 

Minister Vojinovic mentioned about the transition of education in Türkiye by saying that, "I admire your achievements especially in vocational education. We really need training programs for trainers."

 

Minister Özer gave his book "The Universalization of Education in Türkiye and New Orientations" to his counterpart Miomir Vojinovic as a present at the end of the meeting.