Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said during the launch organized in Samsun that they have designed the project based on the question of how to transform and use village schools within two months.

 

Reminding that Türkiye has been going through an important transformation in education in the last 20 years, Özer said they have solved all problems concerning accession to education in all levels varying from preschool to secondary education and from high school to higher education.

 

He added that all barriers preventing accession such as headscarf ban were lifted during this period.

 

"As a result of migration to districts, cities and metropolitans, our Ministry started a mobile education process. We provided free transportation and lunch to students in villages and carried them to nearest schools. But especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, people started to return to their villages. We have been working on a project on how to transform vacant village schools into active centers for approximately 6 months. Our first step was to use them as primary school in the next school year," said Özer.

 

Minister Özer stated that the second step will be using these village school buildings as kindergartens as a part of his Ministry's goal to increase preschool schooling rate.

 

"Ministry of National Education prepared a new regulation concerning opening classes in small residential areas like villages. The regulation decreased the number of students required to open a kindergarten class from 10 to 5. It will be another important step in increasing access to preschool education," reminded Özer.

 

The third step will be the transformation of village school buildings into public education centers.

 

Noting that the Ministry has set the goal of enrolling at one million people in public education centers every month, Özer said that 6 million people enrolled in public education centers in the first five months of 2022.

 

Vacant village schools will also be used as summer schools and summer camps.