Turkey’s Education Ministry postpones face-to-face exams amid pandemic
* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
Minister of National Health Ziya Selçuk has released a statement about the face-to-face exams expected to be held in primary, secondary and high schools across Turkey starting from January 4, 2020.
In his statement on social media, Minister Selçuk has indicated that students will not be given school reports for the first semester.
Amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, students have been receiving distance education via the Education Information Network (EBA) distance learning system introduced by the Ministry. However, it was also announced that students would take face-to face exams.
The statement of the Minister came amid the objections of organizations, such as the Association of Students' Guardians (Veli-Der), which raised concerns about the inequalities in education that have been aggravated by distance learning as well as the health risks to be posed by the pandemic.
In the wake of these calls for postponing the exams, Minister of Education Selçuk has said on Twitter, "In the light of Science Board's recommendations and Health Ministry's evaluations, we discussed face-to-face exams again. According to our decision, the marks of primary and secondary school students will be determined based on their participation in class activities in the first semester. We will determine the first-semester marks of our high school students based on the face-to-face exams in the second term."
The exam dates will be reportedly set by the Ministry of National Education based on the statements of the Health Ministry.
— Ziya Selçuk (@ziyaselcuk) December 25, 2020
(RT/SD)