Answering a question whether the academic year will begin in September as planned, whether distance education will continue or will there be any postponement in the set date, Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk stressed that the situation in Turkey and in the world is changing day by day and week by week.

 

Selçuk stated that his ministry is constantly updating its decisions in line with the recommendations of the Science Board and data obtained from the Ministry of Health and noted that remedial training will begin on August 31 and will continue for at least three weeks.

 

Recalling that the Ministry of National Education plans to open schools right after the end of the remedial training, Selçuk said it will not be right to announce the date today due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic process as this process may change due to upcoming data.

 

Remedial training
Answering a question as, "Is it possible for the Ministry to decide not to open the new academic year in September and decide to make distance education permanent if the pandemic continues or number of infected people continue to rise?" Minister Selçuk responded that it is not easy to answer this question today.

 

Answering another question if remedial training is a mandatory practice, Selçuk underlined that earlier set date August 15 is not a mandatory date to start remedial training.

 

Stating this date was set as earliest date of starting remedial training in private schools, Selçuk said, "A private school may start remedial training on August 31 or on an earlier date. The important thing is to offer options for schools."

 

Minister Selçuk went on to say that he is going to give more information about technical details of remedial training in the future and asked parents not to worry about this subject.

 

Answering a question as, "Will it be possible for students not to participate to remedial training if their parents disapprove?" Selçuk said, "Under such condition, we will not force parents or impose some conditions. What we wanted to do is to respond to the educational needs of the children and provide opportunities for parents who wanted to take additional measures. For example, we also prepared training courses. We are offering non-mandatory supporting and training courses which are held outside school hours for children who wanted to have extra support. Remedial training is not a part of normal education. In other words, different rules other than ordinary education rules may apply in remedial training. These rules can be more flexible."

 

Answering a question whether he wants to send a message to parents who believed August is too soon for face-to-face education or for opening the schools amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Minister Selçuk said, "Of course, our parents are monitoring and watching the situation of their children. If any adverse thing happens, all private schools are not obliged to start remedial training on the same date. If a parent does not want to send his child to remedial training or if he thinks this training is not necessary for his child, then of course we can think of other options. We are imposing a certain mandatory date for private schools. In other words, we will make further decision that will allow parents to make decisions about their children."

 

LGS quota increased when compared with last year
Answering a question about worries that questions of LGS will be harder this year due to limited number of subjects that will asked in the examination, Selçuk said such rumors are out true.

 

Ziya Selçuk stressed that school quotas are increased when compared to the last year and added, "Even if questions in the examination are easy or hard, there is a certain quota. In other words, regardless of nature of questions, certain number of students will enroll in schools so there will be no problem. Nature of questions is a technical issue and we use some statistical formulas for placing students to selected schools. Due to this reason, asking harder or easier questions during the examination is out of the question. Students will be placed to schools according to their success"

 

Pointing that the Ministry of National Education worked very carefully in order to take all necessary measures this year, the number of schools where the exams will be held rose to 18 thousand 139. It increased more than five times."

 

Minister Selçuk stated that this will allow the Ministry to implement social distance rules easily adding that, "Last year, there were about 59 thousand classrooms for examination. This year, this number is 111 thousand and 918. Most important of all, students will take the test at their own schools. In other words, they do not need to go to another address, take the test in a totally different environment or be late for the examination."

Noting that number of invigilators which was 148 thousand last year was increased to 353 thousand this year, Selçuk said, "Last year, no school and psychological counselors were working during the examination.  This year, we have appointed 18 thousands counselors to help the students because we need them in order to guide students and make necessary explanations during the examination."

 

Selçuk asked parents and students to pay attention to the warnings of the invigilators during the examination.

 

"Schools will be cleaned again a day before the examination"
Concerning questions how children diagnosed with Covid-19 will enter the examination set for June 20, Bakan Selçuk stated, "We designate separate schools and areas for children who are diagnosed with Covid-19 where they can enter the examination. Parents can apply to our Ministry and inform us about the disease beforehand. We have separate places where they can take the examination; they can also enter the test at the hospital. We have taken all necessary measures."

 

Answering a question if there are any children diagnosed with Covid-19 had applied to enter the LGS, Minister Selçuk said the Ministry took measures and completed all preparations although there are not such applications until now. "We have completed the disinfection of all schools and all these schools will be cleaned again a day before the examination. We also prepared separate schools or places where our children can take the test comfortably and took all kinds of necessary measures. Our teachers will make required announcement about masks during the examination and ask children not to take off their masks during the examination. Let us not forget that children are more fragile."

 

Concerning plans of the Ministry in case a child is diagnosed with Covid-19 durinmg the exam, Minister Selçuk said, "Transportation of diagnosed child will be traced. Due to this reason, there is no need to worry because we will not risk and let such a child take the test in the same classroom with other children even if he is wearing a mask. In line with the recommendations of the Science Board, diagnosed children will enter the examination in a separate classroom. These classrooms are ready and they can be used in case of need."

 

Answering a question about coronavirus measures during the examination and 45 minute break between the tests, Selçuk stressed that children are not required to bring masks or disinfectants to the exam.

 

Noting that classrooms will be disinfected before the examination, Selçuk went on to say that: "Children will take off the mask they wore while coming to the examination halls and will use the ones that we will distributed during the examination. Moreover, they may need to change their mask after the break. We have made preparations to give new masks to the children and the teachers during the examination and after the breaks."

 

Minister Ziya Selçuk pointed out that children who have difficulty with the masks can take off their mask after the start of the examination and added that social distance rules will be followed during the planning of the seating chart.