‘Is it true that 20 students are quarantined after taking the high school exam?’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Ankara MP Yıldırım Kaya has submitted a Parliamentary question regarding the allegations that a student diagnosed with novel coronavirus (Covid-19) was made to take the High-School Entrance Exam (LGS) in a classroom for 20 without taking any measures in Manisa province.

According to the allegations, after the student took the exam at Şehit Ömer Halisdemir Secondary School on June 20, the other 20 students who took the exam in the same classroom have been quarantined.

Raising concerns over these allegations in his Parliamentary question to Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk, CHP's Kaya has stated:

"While the exam was supposed to be held in the safest place possible so that the health and psychology of both the coronavirus positive student and other students could be protected, a mind-blowing incident took place in Manisa province. A student with coronavirus was made to take the exam in the same classroom with other students."

CLICK - 'Our children did not deserve this'

'Are there similar incidents in other provinces?'

Accordingly, Kaya has asked Minister Selçuk the following questions:

"Was a student who had been diagnosed with coronavirus made to take the exam in the same classroom with other students?

"Is it true that 20 students who were in the same class with this student have been placed in a quarantine after the exam?

"If the allegations are true, why was the student diagnosed with coronavirus made to take the exam in the same class with others?

"Isn't it known beforehand that a student with coronavirus will be made to take the exam in another place amid special security measures?

"Were there are any similar incidents in other parts of Turkey?

"Has any action been taken against the responsible parties?"

What happened?

Education and Science Laborers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) Chair Feray Aytekin previously announced that a student with coronavirus was taken to the exam without any measures in Turkey's Aegean Manisa province.

"We, as the Eğitim-Sen, made warnings over warnings about the LGS and YKS exams for weeks. We said that what mattered was health and right to life," Aytekin has said on Twitter and added, "Our warnings during and before the exam have been justified once again. How is it possible that a student diagnosed with Covid-19 is taken to the exam together with all students?"

The union has expressed the following allegations:

* At the Manisa Şehit Ömer Halisdemir Secondary School, a student diagnosed with Covid-19 took the High-School Entrance Exam (LGS) in the same classroom with 20 students without any measures.

* While the student stayed in the classroom all through the 75-minute verbal part of the exam, s/he was then taken to another classroom for the maths-science part of the exam, saying that s/he fainted.

* The students in the first classroom have been quarantined after the exam. (RT/SD)