Minister of National Education Nabi Avcı attended the “Transformation Process of Prep Schools” meeting organized by TÖDER, ÖZDEBİR, ÖZDER and ÖZKUR-BİR teachers associations and unions for owners of prep schools and representatives of private schools.

Minister Avcı said they had made serious headway in the conversion of the prep schools and went on to say “the word transformation is very appropriate because it fits what we are doing, we have now integrated the private educational institutions into the national education system.

“It is a process of transformation, not a process of shutting down”

Thanking the private educational institutions for their support for the transformation process Minister Avcı went on to say “the business of prep school ownership was a result of the dense exam environment in Turkey. Right from the start we called the process of converting the prep schools to private schools a ‘transformation’ and acted accordingly. So in a sense this was not a decision to shut down the prep schools but a process to convert them into private schools. However, some people tried to degenerate the issue but at the end common sense prevailed. Many of the private educational institutions understood our intentions and supported us. I hope now the private educational sector is much stronger than in the past and can now provide greater services to the educational sector.”

“The debates created over the prep schools are now an issue of the past”

Saying “the debates created over the prep schools are now an issue of the past for us” Minister Avcı added “now we have to concentrate on using the information accumulated in the prep school management sector to private schools and efforts should be made to strengthen the private schools that have been converted from prep schools. The contributions of the private educational institutions in our National Education system will continue with added strength. Our support for the sector will continue as the Ministry of National Education. We will continue to contribute to the development of our country together within the framework of the laws.” 

Saying the Ministry of National Education had provided all the facilities to help the prep schools transform into private schools Minister Avcı said from now on we will achieve cooperation at the highest level and finalize the transformation process. 

Pointing out that the transformation process at the prep schools will continue until September 1, 2015 went on to provide the following information “as of May 22 two thousand 240 prep schools have applied for the transformation program and two thousand 195 of these were accepted into the program. As of the same date 276 facilities have received licenses. 249 of these are basic high schools. The formalities for the rest will be completed by September 1, 2015.” 

Minister Avcı stressed that the prep schools that were not allowed into the program and the study centers would be closed down as of September 1, 2015 and went on to say “From the day the law went into force (May 14, 2015) until May 22, 2015 401 prep schools ended their activities according to their own free will. I thank all our ministry personnel and the institutions that gave us a helping hand during this process thus allowing us to solve a major educational issue with a cool head and hope success in their future activities.”

“The basic high school is a school that will follow the curriculum of the ministry and will not be a prep school undercover”

Minister Avcı said the basic high school concept was taken up as a temporary solution by the educational sector representatives “this will also be an experiment for us and may give us a chance to review the secondary school system. We had said this would be a pilot study. We still feel the same. This is a great experience. We should avoid any suggestion that the basic high school is a step child. These are educational establishments that will give us the experience of what will happen in four years. It is a pilot study that we can benefit from as we review our secondary education system. We believe it will affect the way and direction education is molded. Let us protect all these. Show us that these schools will not be prep schools undercover.”

Private educational establishments thank Minister Avcı 

The Union of Private Educational Institutions (ÖZKUR-BİR) President Hami Koç said “We thank our Minister for his warm approach and support during the transformation process. With this approach our educational system will enter a universal dimension. I believe that with the positive approach displayed by our Minister and his personnel our educational system will turn into an educational base for our region.” Koç said the most important factor in education is the number of students per classroom and added “with the reforms undertaken the average number of students is a class room was 29.7 and I hope this will be lowered to 20 in the near future.”

Also speaking at the meeting All Private Educational Institutions Association (TÖDER) President İbrahim Taşel said they are here to attend an important meeting for Turkish education “our aim is to take important steps for our country, for our educational system and for future generations.”

Association of the Union of Private Prep Schools and Private Educational Establishments (ÖZ-DE-BİR) President Faruk Köprülü on his part said as of September 1, 2015 there will be no prep schools in Turkey. Köprülü recalled the sayings of Mevlana “yesterday is left in yesterday my beloved, now we have to say something new” and went on to say “I want to underline a certain subject and I want to thank the Minister for this. We wanted extra time for the transformation process. The fact that the ministry gave us extra time and helped us out was vital for the sector. We thank him for this. For years we built prep schools. Now we will become proper schools after the transformation.”

Köprülü said the officials of the ministry were very constructive and helpful which eased the concerns of the sector and wished the transformation process to benefit all students, parents, teachers and the educational establishment of Turkey.

Private Education Association (ÖZDER) President Ahmet Akça said their worries were erased as the transformation process progressed in a healthy manner and added “our hopes are high. We are now nearing the end of the process. We thank our Minister for the unprecedented support we experienced. We come from the prep school sector. Now we have become the school sector. We promise to act as if we are from the schools to our Minister. We wish his support to continue.”

“The taboo of prep school sector is being destroyed”

Association of the Union of Private Schools of Turkey President Cem Gülan evaluated the developments and transformation in the educational sector.  

Gülan stressed the importance of the 12 year compulsory education program and added  “the average of a person receiving compulsory education in the OECD countries is around 11.4 percent whereas this is 6.4 percent in Turkey. I believe this percentage will increase for Turkey with every passing day. The free distribution of school text books is very important. In many parts of the world students who want to go to private schools receive state support. At last we also have this system in Turkey thus this form of discrimination has been eliminated. We approached the TEOG entrance exams for high schools with suspicion. However, later we saw that it was very successful. A 50 year taboo of prep school sector is being destroyed. Prep schools have been converted into high schools.”