Rector of Kırşehir Ahi Evran University Prof. Dr. Vatan Karakaya attended the 20th National Education Council that held to make recommendations for the Turkish national education system. Following the opening ceremony held at the Beştepe National Congress and Culture Center with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the 20th National Education Council Council Meeting continued with the main theme of “equality of opportunity in education” under the chairmanship of the Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer.

Expressing his gratitude to all experts, educators, non-governmental organizations and professional organizations who shared their suggestions through online meetings and workshops at the Opening Ceremony, Erdoğan said that the Council, which has been held 19 times to date, has provided useful, productive and important advisory jurisdictions for students, teachers and parents as well as the national education community.

Özer explained that the national education councils are the highest advisory board of the ministry and that they have a guiding role in the formation of the education policies of the MoNE. Özer said, "For this reason, we wanted to convene the 20th National Education Council as soon as possible. After the 19th National Education Council, there was a break for seven years. We wanted to create a roadmap by taking the opinions of all segments of society in Turkey, and everyone who has experience in education and acquis, and blending them together in our priorities regarding equal opportunities in education, in determining our roadmap."

32643 Opinions have been Received at "sura.meb.gov.tr"

On the second day of the 20th National Education Council, three specialization commissions began to work: "Equal Opportunity in Basic Education", "Improving Vocational Education" and "Professional Development of Teachers". As part of the preparatory work for the council, teachers, students, parents, education administrators, unions, foundations, associations, NGOs such as chambers of industry and commerce and universities conveyed their findings and suggestions regarding the agenda, via the website "sura.meb.gov.tr". In this context, 32643 views have been received on the website.

Within the scope of the preparation, workshops were held with the participation of different education stakeholders consisting of teachers, students, parents, education administrators, unions, foundations, associations, chambers of industry and commerce, universities and other non-governmental organizations from all provinces from the 26 coordinator regions created by taking into account the "Classification of Statistical Regional Units of Turkey".  Draft article proposals were created by bringing together all the opinions of the stakeholders by the commissions formed within the Ministry.

Rector Karakaya: "We Need to Establish a System that Confirms the Expectations of Students and Teachers are Realized"

Speaking at the "Teacher Qualifications" commission, which is one of the three main fields of the 20th National Education Council, Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Vatan Karakaya said: "We need to discuss the start and process that will fulfill the expectations of the teacher-student. It is not possible for the child to create a perception of reading the universe by reducing the number of content knowledge and excluding random topics of mathematics. You cannot go up without stepping on the steps of the ladder. Therefore, the expectations that became dreams create a result embellished with beautiful sentences. However, we must make a system that controls processes and is accountable and it should be applicable both in national education and higher education, and then we must give an account of ourselves. Because our children, who go through these wheels, are our future, we cannot leave them to chance. In this sense, what we need to do is to re-evaluate the concept of education, whose initial processes can be controlled and whose goals are determined. They go to schools, but do teachers really take care of children? Do we have proof or are we just hopeful? We need to establish a system that confirms the fulfillment of the expectation. We need to provide input and data such as the number of classes the teacher thaught and the number of activities the students participated in." He made a speech emphasizing the importance of measurement and evaluation in education.

Council will end with advisory jurisdiction

The proposals formed to be discussed in the 20th National Education Council are eloborated in the works of the specialized commissions and it will be finalized after the new proposals to be presented in the commissions are discussed by the council members. The special expertise commissions, organized with the participation of nearly 600 council members, will be completed today, and after the voting to be held at the General Assembly tomorrow, recommendations will be taken and the council will end.