Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer made a presentation at the Parliamentary Plan and Budget Commission about 2023 Central Management Budget Law Drafts of the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education Board, Higher Education Quality Board, Measurement, Selection and Placement Administration and Universities; presentation of 2021 Central Management Final Account Law Draft; assessment of 2021 Court of Accounts Reports and goals and activities of the Ministry of National Education.

 

Noting that Türkiye has entered a historical transformation process in education since 2000s under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Özer said that the country has completed massification process by increasing schooling rates in all levels of education and reached OECD average in student per classroom and teacher figures.

 

"Schooling rate of five year old children which was 11 percent in the 2000s reached 97 percent, schooling rate in primary education reached 99.63 percent and it reached 99.44 percent in secondary education. As a result of 4+4+4 system implemented in 2012, schooling rate in secondary school students increased from 44 percent to 95 percent. In the 2022-2023 school year, there are a total of 1 million and 200 teachers working in a total of 71 thousand and 818 schools and there are 19 million and 100 thousand students in our education system."

 

Stressing that the transformation in the education system aims at integrated improvement, Minister Özer said that international student success surveys like PISA and TIMSS confirmed Türkiye's success in quality based growth in education.

 

"Budget allocated to our Ministry in order to carry out formal and informal education activities for all parts of the society and for Higher Education Board, Higher Quality Board and Universities is 651 billion 377 million 155 thousand liras and it is 14.6 percent of 2023 general budget," said Özer.

 

Minister Özer stated that reinforcement of equal opportunity in education, vocational education and professional development of teachers will continue to be the focus of his Ministry in 2023.

 

"We aim at providing similar opportunities to each of our students, encouraging all teachers to benefit from different development programs and raising quality human resources for the needs of the labor market. All these steps will allow our Education System to compete in the world."

 

Özer shared his Ministry's projects and campaigns about reinforcement of equal opportunity in education and went on to say that:

 

"We aim at increasing the preschool schooling rate of our country to the level of OECD average. Within this framework, we have inaugurated 2,050 new kindergartens and 15,500 new preschool classes within a year. Before the beginning of our project, the number of kindergartens in Türkiye was 2,782. We dropped the student quota to open preschool classes in village schools from 10 to five. More than 20 thousand students enrolled in preschool education in rural areas. Schooling rate of 3 year old children increased from 9 percent to 14 percent and the schooling rate of 4 year old children increased from 16 percent to 35 percent. Schooling rate of 5 year old children increased from 65 percent to 97 percent and this figure will reach 100 percent until the end of 2022."

 

Özer stated that female students benefited most from the improvements achieved in schooling rates and the schooling rate of female students which was 39.2 percent in the 2000s reached 95 percent today.

 

Özer stated that the Ministry will implement a new project in order to increase the schooling rate in secondary education to 100 percent and they will also find a monitoring system in order to detect students who have the risk to drop out of school and encourage them to go back to formal education.

 

Stating that the Ministry has been reinforcing education infrastructure in an effort to reduce student per classroom figures, Özer said that they have founded 356 thousand and 438 new classrooms since 2003.

 

Özer stressed that student per classroom figures dropped to 23 in basic education and to 22 in secondary education. The Ministry successfully implemented "1,000 Schools in Vocational Education" and "10.000 Schools in Basic Education" projects and completed the repairs and technological infrastructure of these schools. The Ministry also organized training programs for the teachers and administrators of these schools. Minister Özer announced that he will initiate the "10,000 Schools in Secondary Education" project in 2023 and his Ministry will support more than 20 thousand schools until the end of 2023.

 

Özer reminded that the Ministry has founded new libraries in 16 thousand and 361 schools as a part of "No More Schools without Libraries Project" and the number of books at school libraries reached 85 million. He said that 2,000 vacant village schools are turned into kindergarten, primary school, training center, library and workshop according to the need of the village as a part of Village Public Center Project.

 

Özer reminded that the Ministry implemented a "school budget" project in the 2022- 2023 school year and allocated 5.5 billion liras directly to schools for their stationary, hygiene and minor repair needs.

 

Concerning digitalization in education, Özer went on to say that, "We have installed a total of 522,691 interactive boards to 27,198 schools still now. We have completed the installation of 1 billion 171 thousand 000 data terminals and these schools have wide band internet accession.  We provide cable, satellite and mobile accession technologies to these schools. There will be no more classrooms without interactive boards until the end of 2023."

 

Özer stated that the number of e-exam centers will reach 650 and 13 thousand people will have the opportunity to enter the exams at the same time.

 

Noting that the Ministry has distributed approximately 3.5 billion free textbooks to students since the last 20 years, Özer said 153 million free text books and 160 million free supplementary sources were distributed to students at the beginning of 2022-2023 school year.

 

Özer said that the Ministry initiated summer school practice for the first time in its history and approximately 1 million students have attended the summer school and summer courses.

 

"334 thousand and 541 students who need special education are enrolled in the same class with their peers and 59 thousand and 635 of students with special needs are studying in special education schools. We also offer education services to 993 students who are in hospitals and 10 thousand 578 students who are at home due to their special needs," stated Özer.

 

He noted that the Ministry has founded public education centers for disabled people who are over 18 in 70 cities and these centers will be disseminated to other cities and districts of the country until the end of 2023.

 

Minister Özer stressed that reinforcement of vocational education is another focus of his Ministry and mentioned about improvements achieved in this field in recent years. He said that the income of vocational and technical schools increased from 200 million to 1 billion and 162 million liras in 2021.

 

"Our goal for 2022 was to reach 1,5 billion lira production capacity and production capacity of these schools reached 1 billion and 362 million liras in the first nine months of 2022. We have founded R&D centers in 55 vocational and technical schools in order to reinforce vocational education and we are happy that the Turkish Patent and Brand Institutions have registered 8 thousand and 269 products of these schools in 2022. 74 of these products are commercialized. Successful students started to prefer vocational schools which gradually increase their production capacity and export their products," Özer said. 

 

Özer thanked deputies for their efforts to make amendments in the Vocational Education Law No. 3308 and stated that the number of students enrolled in vocational education centers increased from 159 thousand to 950 thousand.

 

Noting that improvements in the vocational education decreased young unemployment rates, Özer reminded that Türkiye's success in vocational education drew the attention of the international education community and the vocational education summit of the OECD will be held in İstanbul on December 1, 2022.

 

Noting that another priority of the Ministry is to support vocational development programs organized for teachers, Minister Özer said that the training program per teacher was 44 hours in 2020, it increased to 94 hours in 2021 and reached 194 hours in the first ten months of 2022 and the goal was 120 hours.

 

Özer stressed that 95 percent of teachers who are qualified to enter career steps exams have applied to the head and expert teacher exams mentioned in the Teacher Profession Law and 99 of these teachers already completed required training programs and 98 of them applied to enter the exam.

 

Özer shared information about his Ministry's 2021 final account data and 435 billion 351 million and 82 thousand lira of the education budget is allocated to the Ministry of National Education for 2023 activities. The Ministry will allocate 21 billion 83-2 million and 539 thousand liras for including disabled persons to social life and special education programs; 8 billion 412 million 877 thousand liras to lifelong learning programs, 214 million and 428 thousand liras for measurement, selection and placement programs, 135 billion 736 million 733 thousand liras for secondary education programs,  228 billion 627 million 205 thousand liras for basic education programs, 7 billion 386 million 111 thousand liras for international education cooperation project and abroad education programs and 33 billion 891 million 189 thousand liras for management and support activities.

 

Moreover, Özer stated that the budget of Higher Education Board, Higher Education Quality Board and Universities will be 134 billion 692 million 983 thousand liras; budget of the Measurement, Selection and Placement will be 1 billion 544 million 369 thousand liras;  the budget of the Higher Education Credit and Dormitories will be 56 billion 283 million 721 thousand liras; and the Social Aid and Solidarity Promotion Fund will allocate 11 billion 660 million liras for free textbook expenses, lunch for primary/secondary students and transportation of students who need special education.  Total budget of education will be 651 billion 377 million and 155 thousand liras including 421 million 500 thousand liras for heating expenses at schools allocated by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and 10 billion and 345 million liras for state contribution to the apprentice salaries allocated by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.