TURKEY: School shortage forces 20,0

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

From: <pnmideast>
Subject: TURKEY: School shortage forces 20,0

/* Written 12:12 am  Sep 19, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "TURKEY: School shortage forces 20,0" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: TURKEY: School shortage forces 20,000 students to stay home


an inter press service feature

by nadire mater

istanbul, sep 16 (ips) -- the bells tolled ominously this week for
thousands of schoolchildren in turkey with as many as 20,000
forced to stay at home simply because there is no space for them
in the country's overcrowded school system.

besides the overcrowding, there is also the question of security
in the south-eastern provinces of the country -- exacerbated by
the continued racist tension between the minority kurds and the
turkish government.

ips investigations have revealed that as many as 100 students
were squeezed into some classrooms when the september term began
earlier in the week -- a problem which government intends to
tackle by letting schools operate in shifts.

''there were 85 students last year in my class. i couldn't even
remember some of the children's names,'' says nursen idil, 30, a
teacher in bahcelievler, istanbul.

''overpopulated classes are neither good for the quality of the
education, nor for the teachers' working mood. if a student is
active, he/she can steal the whole show in the class, but a quiet
child can be totally forgotten in these overpopulated classes.''

acknowledging the problem, minister of education koksal toptan
has announced that government's solution would be to let the
schools work in three shifts, splitting some classes in two and
others in three to reduce their numbers. this will effectively
reduce the number of school hours for each pupil.

the children most affected by the lacking facilities are those in
the troubled south-eastern region, mainly populated by the kurds
who are also trying to get government to address another matter --
the issue of being taught in their own language.

''we shall establish independent kurdistan, we shall have our own
schools in kurdish, says saban, 10, of the sirnak province.

but the turkish government does not recognise the kurdish
identity and so kurdish students are required to participate, or
at the very least listen to the cry of turkish youths as they
religiously recite this oath at the beginning of every school day:
''i am turkish, i am righteous, i am industrious.''

half in jest, half in defiance, saban has altered the oath to
say: ''i am kurdish, i am righteous, i am industrious.''(more/ips)

turkey: school shortage forces 20,000 students to stay home(2-e)

turkey: school (2)

even though it is reported that 14,000 of the 16,500 teachers who
are scheduled to take up duty in the south-eastern region, it is
not uncommon for teachers to leave these posts after only a short
while on the job.

sociology graduate hacer donem, who was last year assigned to the
south-eastern province of hakkari, stressed that she had nothing
against the kurds. ''but i don't want to be killed in that dirty
war. there is no guarantee from any side not from the pkk
(kurdistan workers party) nor from the state. and the monthly
salary is so small.''

she is of the opinion that it is everyone's right to be taught in
their mother tongue. ''since i don't know any kurdish, why was i
being sent there?'' she asked, having turned down the posting and
opted instead to work in a supermarket in izmir.

teachers' unions generally agree that students should be allowed
tuition in their own language. ''education in one's mother tongue
is a human rights issue rather than an issue of education. the
constitution should be revised to reflect this,'' said niyazi
altunya, chairman of the egitim-is (educators' union).

with so many problems confronting the system educators are
worried about the declining standards of teaching, which is
reflected by the falling literacy rate.

twenty percent of turkey's 56 million population cannot read nor
write according to the latest official statistics. notably, this
figure is doubled in the south-eastern region where 43 percent of
the population is deemed illiterate.

only 20 percent of the four million kurds living in turkey have
actually graduated from primary school, while barely 1.1 percent
of those kurds living in the south-east have university education.

this situation is unlikely to improve with the upsurge of
violence in the region. only last month 20,000 residents from a
village in sirnak fled their homes to get away from the fighting
and as many as 150 schools here and in the surrounding districts
remain closed. in all, 670 schools in the south-east are yet to
open their doors.

for those who can afford it, they are passing up the free
education provided by the state and instead enlisting their
children in private schools, usually to take up foreign languages.
but this is an expensive exercise costing as much as 3,000 dollars
per pupil a year.

makbule fahir, a 35-year-old factory worker from istanbul can't
afford such costs, but he is concerned that his son is at a
disadvantage in the government programme.

''my son is in intermediate school. they don't have english,
maths and biology teachers. he is very happy about this because it
means that this will give him seven to eight hours of free classes
a week. but this means he won't be able to learn anything in that
basic course.'' (end/ips/ce/nm/cpg/92)