Education union objects to closing of universities until summer after earthquakes

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Saturday (February 11) that all universities in Türkiye will be closed until the summer and that their residence halls will be used to accommodate the earthquake victims.

"We are closing the universities until the summer; they will continue with distance learning," Erdoğan said.

Subsequently, the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) made a written statement and announced that the universities will continue with remote learning after the February 6 earthquakes.

The Education and Science Employees Union (Eğitim-Sen) issued a written statement and objected to such a decision. 

They said, "It is not acceptable that the universities will continue with remote learning."

The union called on the government and YÖK to "start face-to-face education at the universities at the earliest possible date to be announced clearly in advance."

"It is not fair to make the youth pay"

Eğitim-Sen argued that we cannot sacrifice the right of our youth to education, making them pay for the lack of ability to manage the crisis.

Eğitim-Sen union underlined that there are social facilities of many public institutions throughout the country, that there are ten thousands of flats already built but still empty, and that there are so many hotels and guesthouses that can serve those affected by the earthquake.

The union said, "it is not intelligible that the university residence halls are emptied at first hand," and added, "This unacceptable approach is due to the fact that they have seen how comfortable for them remote education was for them during the pandemic."

Eğitim-Sen requested that all university students in the regions struck by the earthquake should be temporarily transferred to the universities in safe regions and that face-to-face education started at the earliest possible date. (SD/PE)