Emphasizing that all opportunities were mobilized in the disaster area for children to meet them with their schools and continue their education, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said that they brought students together with their teachers in tents, containers and prefabricated schools. Underlining that they worked very hard in the field for children to overcome the negative effects of the earthquake in the first place, Minister Özer recalled that they planned the education and training processes in ten quake-hit provinces which were divided into three categories. Özer restated that the education started in Kilis, Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa, which are in the first category on March 1; in Adana, Gaziantep and Osmaniye, which are in the second category on March 13. He announced that the education and training in Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, Malatya and Hatay will start gradually as of March 27.

 

Expressing that a total of 252 thousand 829 students were transferred from ten quake-hit provinces to other provinces, Özer said, that a total of 34 thousand 441 students were transferred to Ankara, 23 thousand 307 to Mersin, 22 thousand 190 to Antalya, 19 thousand 434 to Istanbul. Özer shared that they have transferred 13 thousand 665 students to Konya. Stating that the transfer process from the earthquake zone has come to a stopping point, Özer said that as a result of their efforts to normalize the education in order to normalize the life in the earthquake zone by reopening the schools, the students who transferred from the earthquake zone started to return  to their hometowns.

 

Providing information about the number of students who returned to the quake-hit provinces Özer noted that 3 thousand 402 students were returned to Gaziantep, 1 thousand 274 students to Kahramanmaraş, 878 students to Adana, 796 students to Hatay, 607 students to Osmaniye, 546 students to Diyarbakır, 533 students to Malatya, 486 students to Şanlıurfa, 345 students to Adıyaman and 92 students were transferred back to Kilis.  In the light of these numbers, Özer noted that a total of 8 thousand 959 students were transferred back to their hometowns, in line with their demands.

 

Recalling his decision to build 500 new steel-constructed prefabricated schools in the earthquake zone, Özer said that the education family has embraced students transferred from the disaster area in their new schools. Stating that they will continue to normalize education and live and overcome all difficulties together, Minister Özer underlined that they always stand by children.