Minister Selçuk held his first group meeting with class teachers and stated that he had spent a majority of his academic life for raising class teachers. Underlining that class teachers have an important place in the education life of children, Selçuk said, "We are aware that every single look or smile on your faces will make children happy."

 

Selçuk pointed out that class teachers must consult with field teachers while making a decision adding that, "We have to cooperate for the best decision." Class teachers who attended the meeting asked about allegations that branch teachers will give lessons at primary schools and Selçuk stated, "Class teachers are with children during their most critical era of their personality development... Children have to learn everything about their academic development, emotional development and what they went through at home. Due to this reason children have to spend more time with them".

 

Teacher Yeliz Terzi from Bartın attended the meeting with his son Mete who was one of 100 little writers of the book entitled, "Homemade Tales from Children" Mete thanked Minister Selçuk for sending the book. Minister Selçuk said he enjoyed the book and advised him to keep on writing.

 

Teacher Ercan Yıldız from Kayseri performed a Turkish Classical Music piece entitled, "We will meet again soon" during the meeting and stated that the song matches with feelings that "people experienced during the pandemic.

 

Minister Selçuk held a second group meeting with English teachers. English teachers shared their suggestions for more active foreign language lessons with the Minister. Selçuk stated that the Ministry is aware of this need and they have been working in an effort to improve text books and teaching materials.  Underling that the Ministry is also working in order to produce cartoons and animated movies in English for young children, Selçuk said that it is important to explain children why they need to learn English.

 

Next guests of the series of meetings with Teacher Ziya were with secondary school math teachers. Teachers agreed that both students and parents have a bias as math is a tough subject. Minister Selçuk said, "When I was a student, I liked math as I liked my teacher. I wonder if students are like me." A response came from math teacher Muttalip Şahin from Kahramanmaraş. He said that he had the slogan, "Like your teacher, like the lesson"

 

Noting that knowing their students will help teachers to take more accurate decisions, Minister Selçuk called on his colleagues to declare the upcoming academic year as the year of cooperation for popularizing maths. "Let's work in an effort to teach your students to like maths. Let's raise our country's bar in this field to the international level. We would like to teach our children to make connection with their maths knowledge with daily life since pre-school. We have students who are late learners, learners in normal process and children who need higher level education. We have different preparations for these three groups. I have some suggestions for my colleagues in order to eliminate bias as maths is tough. Teachers can organize games and activities in the first few hours of their classes at the beginning of the academic year in order to establish strong bounds with their students."