‘Doesn’t Turkey have the budget to appoint 2,511 teachers?’

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

Click to read the article in Turkish

The EKPSS, or the Disabled Public Personnel Selection Examination, was postponed for three times due to the pandemic.

Awaiting their appointment to work in public education institutions, teachers with disabilities who could take the exam are now calling on the Ministry of National Education and the Presidency to appoint them.

Scheduled for April 26, 2020, the EKPSS was first postponed to September 20, then to October 11 and November 15, 2020. Following the exam in November, it was announced that only 500 teachers would be appointed in February. 2,511 teachers are still awaiting appointment.

Speaking to bianet on behalf of the Disabled Teachers Awaiting Appointment Group, a prospective teacher says it is "disappointing" that only 500 people were appointed following an exam taken by 3,511 people.

Noting that 2,511 teachers with disabilities are now hopefully waiting for the appointment scheduled for June 2021, she adds: "We studied in very difficult conditions, we didn't have a normal education life. All this trouble has to be worth something. We didn't wage all this struggle for all these years for nothing. We want our appointments to be made."

'We demand concrete steps'

"When we ask the authorities why we are not appointed, it is said that there is no budget," says the prospective teacher further: "We don't find this statement sincere. We are 3,511 people in total across Turkey. 500 have been appointed. Isn't there a budget to appoint 2,511 teachers?"

She briefly adds the following about the issue:

"In the Disability Week of May 10-16, they will all together say that they stand with the disabled. But we don't want to hear abstract words; we want concrete steps to be taken. We don't have an extraordinary request; we have a request that can be met and this is our right.

'We want to do our job'

"A disability pension is given now, social relief is offered; but we don't want to get social relief and sit at home. We studied and now we want to do our job. Our only problem is not the economic problem.

"Even the people without disabilities finalize their education life with great hardships. We finalize this process with extraordinary efforts and we want this to be seen. We don't want to be in a position of 'Take your disability pension and sit in your corner' after completing our education."

Call to the President

Releasing a video on social media, the teachers with disabilities who have not been appointed have made a call to President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan:

"We are the teachers who completed their education with all types of hardships, took the 2020 EKPSS, but have not been appointed. Unfortunately, we have also been affected by the low quotas.

"We demand that all 2,511 teachers with disabilities be appointed in the appointment of disabled teachers to be held in June." (RT/SD)