Turkey sees a learning loss in all grades of primary education, says minister

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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Turkey's Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer met with education editors yesterday (November 17).

Noting that they, as the Ministry, are working to ensure equality of opportunity in education, Özer said that there will be no change in the High School Entrance System and the central exam to be held in June.

The Minister also talked about the targets to be achieved in equality of opportunity in education in 2022. He said that the rate of access to preschool education will be increased and the difference in opportunities between schools will be minimized. According to Minister Özer, teachers will also be obliged to have a three-month mandatory professional and personal training.

"Our primary priority is that schools continue giving in-class education," said the Education Minister, reiterating that "this is a security issue and schools must be the last places to be closed" due to the pandemic.

Referring further to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Minister Mahmut Özer said, "During the outbreak, there were losses of learning in all grades in the course of distance learning. There were losses in all grades of primary education. Sources on literacy became a part of education, we have opened training courses and we will continue to do so."

The Minister pledged that they, as the Ministry of National Education, will eliminate the learning losses suffered by students in this process.

According to the Minister, "the pandemic process has aggravated the inequality of opportunities in education" in Turkey.

Talking about the vaccination of teachers against COVID-19 as well, Özer said, "Our biggest advantage is that teachers have been vaccinated in the in-class education process. The rate of fully vaccinated teachers is 87 percent and 5 percent of teachers had the disease, thereby being immunized from it. The total rate is 92 percent, which is a great rate." (RT/SD)