School For Special-Needs Children Relocated To Inaccessible Area

Mimar Sinan Private Primary School for Special Needs has been relocated from İstanbul's Fatih district to Büyükçekmece, 40 kilometers away, requiring the transfer of 260 disabled students, according to news outlets.

Surrounding the new location are factories, causing parents to hesitate to send their children such a far distance from the previous location. The change of the school grounds has been under consideration for several years, but parents were promised that the furthest the school would be transferred to would be to Topkapı, only five kilometers from the school's current location. This has left parents feeling fooled by the administration.

Parents and students have shared with Turkish media outlets apprehensive reactions due to the relocation of the campus. The mother of Samet Abacı, a student who suffers from autism, spoke to the press, saying: “If our financial situation was better off, I would move without hesitation. It takes me three hours to reach the school in Büyükçekmece from Sarıyer [where I live].” Nazmiye Abacı went on to say: “The school is in such a remote area that I don't know if I can send my child there safely. They are basically telling us not to send our children to school. They [the government] view the disabled as a burden. They are obstructing our children's social lives.”

Additionally, ninth-grader Kübra Omaz, who is hearing impaired, explained that she intends to drop out because she does not feel safe at the new school location.

Despite classes having commenced throughout Turkey last week, the students of Mimar Sinan Private Primary School for Special Needs have yet to attend their first class. The school has been suffering from a shortage of teachers, and the teachers who remain are said to be looking to transfer to other schools. An employee at the school who asked to remain anonymous said, “These should not be the conditions under which the school year begins; to have a decent year we should wait until after Eid al-Adha [in early October].”

Because of the recent change to the education system, which implemented a 4+4+4 level system, some of the departments of the school are not competent in teaching special-needs students. This issue, along with the location change and staff shortage, has led to classes starting two weeks and three days late.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)