Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer mentioned education investments made in the last 20 years at the beginning of his speech at the inauguration ceremony of M. Emin Saraç Anatolia İmam Hatip High School Library named after Mustafa Kutlu.

 

"Investments made in the last 20 years should be mentioned frequently as they lead an important historical transformation. Due to this reason, I opened and will continue to open my speeches by mentioning this transformation," said Özer.

 

Noting that there are three important dimensions of this transformation in education, Özer went on to say that: "First and most important of all, the last 20 years was the period when schooling rates in all levels of education varying from pre-school to higher education were achieved. That means; schooling rate of 5 year old children increased from 11 percent to 93 percent and the schooling rate in secondary education increased from 44 percent to 90 percent. It is a period when the children of this country enroll in education institutions no matter which part of the country they live in."

 

Özer said that the second dimension is the elimination of antidemocratic practices.

 

"This is the time when we cure the damages of the past. It is the period when we lifted the headscarf ban. It is also when we lifted coefficient practices that prevented imam hatip and vocational high school graduates from enrolling in university programs. We also had the opportunity to teach the Quran, life of our holy prophet and religious knowledge to children at schools. This period also allowed female teachers wearing headscarves to work at schools. These are very important steps," stated Özer.

 

He stressed that the most important and third dimension is massification of education which is based on quality rather than quantity.

 

Özer expressed his gratitude to architect of this process President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and reminded that his Ministry is working in an effort to raise children who are academically successful in addition to their knowledge about the cultural inheritance of their country.  

 

Noting that "No More Schools without Libraries" project initiated under the auspices of President Erdoğan's spouse Emine Erdoğan was a modest step in this path, Özer said, "We started the project on October 26, 2021 and we have founded 16,361 libraries within two months. There were 28 million books in our libraries. This figure reached 70 million and with Allah's permission, the number of books in school libraries will increase to 100 million until the end of this year."

 

Özer reminded that all school libraries are open during the summer holiday in order to encourage children to read more books.

 

"We kept libraries open during the summer while we organized four different summer courses for students. Children and their parents can come to school libraries and spend their time," stated Özer.  

 

The Ministry of National Education named newly founded libraries after named libraries after Doğan Hızlan, Alev Alatlı, İhsan Fazlıoğlu, Murat Bardakçı and İlber Ortaylı.

 

"I wish that many authors like Mustafa Kutlu will study in this school. We wish that he would visit this school once a month and chat with students in order to show them the way and share his experiences," said Özer.

 

He noted that his Ministry cooperated with the Ministries of Family and Social Services and Culture and Tourism about school libraries.

 

Meanwhile, author and Presidential Culture and Arts Prize winner Mustafa Kutlu said that it is hard for children to encounter books as they spend their time with tablets, smart phones and computers and the first step of adapting reading habits must be taken in the family.

 

Following the speeches, Minister Özer gave a present to Kutlu. Başakşehir İstanbul Technical University İsmail Dede Efendi Fine Arts High School students gave a recital to the guests.

 

Among the guests of the inauguration ceremony were İstanbul Deputy Tülay Kaynarca, İstanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya and İstanbul Provincial Director of National Education Levent Yazıcı.