30.10.2026 10:02
Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin answered journalists' questions in Erzurum. Tekin, saying that schools are categorized according to the region in which they are located and that schools requiring a constant police presence have been identified, said regarding rumors that the four-year classroom teacher practice in primary schools would change, "It is not an issue we have decided on." Tekin also denied the claim that his photo was in textbooks.
Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, regarding the common written exam system, used the following statements: “We are beginning to establish a mechanism through which we can objectively measure the quality of education in schools. We started this when TEOG was being implemented and said we would ‘expand it.’ Common exam practices continued. For two years now, we have already been doing these as a pilot application.”
Minister Tekin met with journalists in Erzurum, made statements on the education agenda, and answered questions.
Noting that gastronomy high schools would record the regions’ food culture and bring it into the literature, Tekin said that these schools were established to teach the preparation and presentation of local dishes, as well as to contribute to regional tourism.
Tekin said, “Our other schools are standard. When you say Anatolian high school, the one in Çanakkale and the one in Kars implement the same curriculum. Vocational high schools are the same as well. But the curricula of all seven gastronomy high schools are different, related to the culture of the geography in which they are located.”
THOSE WHO HUNG THE BANNER HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT HIGH SCHOOL
Minister Tekin also answered a journalist’s question: “Before your visit in Istanbul, a demonstration with a banner was held at a school. Did you witness this incident? After the incident, it was reported in the press that two students were arrested. This process was also discussed in public opinion and on social media, and some claims came to the agenda that you too filed a complaint. Did you have any complaint regarding the incident in question?”
Stating that during their Istanbul visit they made visits with the Provincial Director of National Education to see some works on site, Tekin said they went to the area to see how a mansion allocated to the Ministry would be used in the garden of the school in question.
Tekin said that while examining the mansion, he saw students through the school windows and that, at the students’ request and invitation, they also visited the school.
Explaining that they chatted with students in two classrooms, Tekin used the following statement: “We made evaluations about the school. We chatted with the young people and took photos. Then I left the school. I neither saw a protest, nor any banner protesting, nor was there any unpleasant situation between us and the students that could be perceived in that way.”
After leaving the area, Tekin recounted that news was conveyed to him that the incident in question had occurred the night before, and he noted the following:
“Two people with no connection to high school students hung a banner on the school wall at 01:30 the previous night. At a time when school security is so much on the agenda, someone enters the school illegally at night. The right to protest is not doing such a thing by secretly entering a school in the middle of the night. Naturally, the security cameras were also examined in the morning. By the time we went there, this had already been detected, the banner had been removed, and we did not see the banner. The school administration also did not tell us anything about the banner. The banner was taken down, and from the security camera footage, the police conducted their own work on who did it.”
THERE IS NO PHOTOGRAPH OF ME IN THE TEXTBOOK
Stating that the individuals in question were university students and had never received education at the high school mentioned, Tekin noted the following:
“Even stranger, they go with political party affiliation. We say we will not bring politics into schools; we already prevent such emblems of parties. How will the police know there that those who hung the banner did not do anything that would cause another kind of security problem? The incident is not dependent on a complaint. An ex officio investigation was initiated; I had no knowledge of the incident. Those who carried out the incident have nothing to do with that high school. Then someone comes out and says, ‘The Minister filed a complaint.’ A lie. I invite those who tell this lie to prove it.”
To the question “There has also been an action going on for some time; removing your photographs from textbooks has become a form of action,” Tekin gave the following answer:
“Would a Minister’s photograph be in textbooks? What kind of logic is this, what kind of lie? There is one example; I saw it on social media. That is the Atlas of Turkish World Culture. It is not a textbook. Since it is not a textbook, there is a presentation text I wrote in it. There is a one-page text explaining why we distributed this book even though it is not a textbook. The standard of textbooks is clear. There is a main cover, a back cover, our National Anthem. Atatürk’s Address to the Youth, Atatürk. These are the books; this is already in our regulation. There is no photograph of me in the textbook.”
THERE WILL BE POLICE OFFICERS CONTINUOUSLY PRESENT AT SOME SCHOOLS
To the question regarding school security, Minister Tekin gave the answer: “We have no thought or effort to station police at all schools. But we will take and are taking measures in schools that align with academic principles from a pedagogical perspective.”
Explaining that within this scope they have set a standard in schools, Tekin stated that they created a package of measures for the minimum measures that should be present in all schools, including security camera recordings and emergency buttons.
Tekin shared the following information: “These vary according to the characteristics of the region where the school is located, from higher perimeter walls to turnstile systems. There can be no proposal to install a turnstile system at every school, but we take different measures in such places where we can say which schools will have turnstile systems installed, if the school’s location is in an environment full of workplaces, if it is a place close to a crowded hospital, if it is a place where we can say not every vehicle or everyone should enter its garden. We have categorized all our schools in a way that different measures will be taken in different regions.”
Stating that in addition to standard measures there are also maximum measures, Tekin continued as follows:
“Within the maximum measures, we spoke with the Ministry of Interior regarding the region where the school is located. We identified schools where a police officer should be present continuously. This was already work we did every year. This year we did it together with seven ministries. In those schools as well, we evaluated each of our schools from these perspectives in terms of security measures, as in the example of a police officer waiting 24 hours or waiting when the school is open. We have also taken those measures.
What I mentioned regarding the measures to be taken in February was this: we had said we are working on a different method regarding the employment procedure. That is still one of the topics we discussed during the budget negotiations. For this year, we took them through TYP. Regarding next year, we are discussing how to include it in the 2027 budget. There are 31,000 garden attendants, but garden attendants are not police officers, after all. They also do not have firearm carrying licenses or similar. There are some issues there related to legislation.”
THE COMMON EXAM IS NOT A NEW DECISION
Minister Tekin gave the information that the number of schools implementing the intensive foreign language program has reached 1,110, and that in addition to the first foreign language, a two-hour-per-week second foreign language practice will also be implemented.
Also making a statement regarding the common written exams, Tekin noted the following:
“In public opinion, there are debates among schools over grade averages, over the secondary education weighted average used in university admission, and there are debates over private schools inflating grades.We said that we are starting to establish a mechanism through which we can objectively measure the quality of education in schools. We started this while TEOG was being implemented and said we would expand it. Common exam practices continued. We have already been doing these as a pilot application for two years.
We had already said that this year we would switch to the common exam practice in the aforementioned courses. This is not something we have newly announced. I am trying to ensure objectivity here. If the exams are based on the Ministry of National Education's curriculum, why is the school not implementing the Ministry of National Education curriculum? I'm sorry, but this cannot be to sell its own publication.
Tekin, noting that they created a large AI-supported data set with the Ministry Management System, said, "The common exam grades here will also be reflected there, and therefore anomalies will come before me. I will say, 'There is a problem in a school in province X.' We will identify these and take the necessary steps. There is nothing to object to here in terms of the quality of education."
Tekin responded to criticisms about holding an exam on November 10 by saying that even though a common written exam was not planned, the week of November 10 is the week when written exams are held in schools.
WILL CLASSROOM TEACHING CHANGE?
Also answering the question regarding rumors that "the four-year classroom teacher practice in primary schools will change," Tekin reported that a different model related to specialization has begun to spread in the world, and that there are demands in some schools for subject teachers to enter some classes.
Tekin continued as follows:
"There is an expectation of specialization. Naturally, we also ask our teachers, 'What do you think about this?' This is not a matter on which we have decided or said we will do as of now. We talked in a teachers' room, and it became news from there. There, too, we said the following: first and second grades in primary school are groups closer to each other in terms of age group. Third and fourth grades are closer groups. Therefore, we are asking our teachers for their opinions on how it would be if primary school classroom teachers were separated into those teaching first and second grades and those teaching third and fourth grades, and what they think.
This is still at the discussion stage. If necessary, our General Directorate of Basic Education will hold workshops on this. Perhaps at the end of that, if our teacher colleagues do not want it, it will be abandoned. In other words, there is currently no concrete, matured, or taken step from our Ministry regarding this issue, and it is not something that will be done from today to tomorrow anyway.
Tekin added that the application petition for the lawsuit they will file against Meta will also be submitted, and that they may bring other platforms onto the agenda in the coming process.
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