Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said during this speech at the final meeting of the Education Ministers session of the summit that significant investments were made in education since the establishment of Türkiye in order to increase equal opportunity in education and provide quality of education to all people. Özer stated that however Türkiye experienced a delayed massification process which OECD and developed countries experienced in the 1950s in the aftermath of World War II.

 

Noting that the schooling rate in secondary and higher education especially increased in the last 20 years, Özer stressed that the largest massification in all levels varying from preschool to secondary education and high school to higher education was observed in the last 20 years.

 

The Minister of National Education reminded that Türkiye was reelected to the UNESCO Executive Board Membership for 2021-2025 term on November 12, 2021 as a part of UNESCO's 41st General Conference and thanked African countries for their support during this process.

 

"I wish that cooperation between our countries could turn into systematic structure and become legal agreements," said Özer.

 

Reminding that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan frequently mentioned in his addresses to people and during his meetings with world leaders that the world is greater than five, Özer said, "I believe that we have shown the good example of this sentence to the world in this summit. World is greater than five in education, too."

 

"Budget of the Ministry of National Education has always been higher than the budget of other ministries and it is equivalent to 15,7 percent of the total budget," stated Özer.

 

Minister Özer mentioned that there are 1.2 million teachers in the national education system and the Ministry is working in an effort to establish a culture that will increase equal opportunity in education and will provide constant improvement in the quality of education.

 

Stating that the Ministry focuses on four main topics within this framework, Özer said that their first priority is to disseminate preschool education.

 

Özer went on to say that the Ministry aims at increasing the schooling rate among the 3 year old age group from 14 percent to 50 percent, the schooling rate among 4 year old age group from 35 percent to 70 percent and finally the schooling rate of the 5 year old age group from 78 percent to 100 percent.

 

We are aiming at supporting teaches with psychosocial, personal improvement and leadership training programs in 2022

 

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer stressed that their second priority is to decrease opportunity differences among schools and third priority is to support teachers' professional improvement.

 

Noting that the quality of an education system is based on the quality of teachers, Özer said, "In our large education system including 1.2 million teachers, we do not only support the professional improvement of teachers, we also aim at supporting teaches with psychosocial, personal improvement and leadership training programs in 2022. These three goals will be our final campaign as a part of our effort to increase massification and quality." 

 

Concerning vocational education, Özer stated that it was considered the most disadvantaged education in the education system in the entire world.

 

"When we take a look at education systems in the world, we see that there is a tendency that children of socioeconomically disadvantaged families are usually enrolled in vocational education but this has changed in Turkey especially due to projects carried out in the last 3-4 years. We are happy that academically successful students are enrolled in the vocational schools which are equipped with workshops and labs and make contributions to the economy," said Özer.

 

Özer mentioned that two vocational technical high schools have developed a rapid antigen kit and it will be used at schools after the approval of the Ministry of Health adding that he hoped that he will have the opportunity to share this kit with the Education Ministers of African countries soon.