Investigation into school principal’s instruction about seating arrangement

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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After Mithatpaşa Secondary School Principal Haydar Akın sent a written notification to teachers and asked them to make girls and boys sit at separate desks, the Osmangazi Sub-Governor's Office in Bursa has announced that it has launched an inquiry and investigation.

Making a statement about the incident, the Sub-Governor's Office has said, "While an inquiry and investigation has been launched into the incidents unfolding at a secondary school in the Osmangazi district, the related works are undertaken comprehensively and sensitively".

In the written message sent by Osmangazi Mithatpaşa Secondary School Principal to teachers, it was said, "I am asking you to show sensitivity to ensure that boys sit with boys and girls with girls". This message has caused a public outcry, especially on social media.

The Education and Science Laborers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) has also released a statement about the issue and recalled that "what happened in Bursa's Osmangazi is not the first" of its kind. According to the union, "that the school principal, by exceeding his authority and crossing the line, wants girls and boys to sit separately with a sexist point of view is a typical result of the anti-coeducation mindset, which is frequently brought to the agenda by the government and pro-government circles".

The union has stressed that "this outdated mindset is obviously a concrete manifestation of the idea to make girls and boys first sit at separate desks, then in separate classrooms and then in separate schools".

Saying that "such a twisted and sick attitude, conflicting with the basic principles of pedagogy, means defying secular education", the union has defined it as "a great threat to children's future" that "such people with such a discriminatory and sexist mentality serve as school principals".

Stressing that the principal "commits a crime through children's gender by exceeding his legal powers", Eğitim-Sen has indicated that the school principal must be dismissed from duty immediately and "a person who has such an outdated mentality must not be allowed to be on duty as an administrator or teacher". (AÖ/SD)