Minister Selçuk said during his speech during the MEB Assistant Promotion Meeting that the world has been going through a very different period and the ability to comply with these conditions and to do what is necessary during hard conditions is the indicator of success of societies.

 

Noting that period MEB has shown its ability to adapt to the conditions in a very short period of time during the distance education period, Minister Selçuk stated, "Rapid change in the ways to carry out what is necessary in the whole world especially in terms of education is something we must reconsider. Lots of new methods that were considered to be activated within a decade for digitalization were put into use almost all over the world in the 5 months. Things that were considered to be achieved within 8 to 10 years were completed within 8 to 10 months. We must adapt to these changing conditions and have a leading role in this process. If you take a look at the 2023 Education Vision that we had prepared two years ago, you can see that this document has been prepared with this point of view. Conditions and rules of "New normal" concept were actually mentioned in the 2023 Education Vision document.

 

Minister Selçuk underlined that research, development, innovation and digital transformation activities are carried out via MEB Assistant application adding that, "You will see that artificial intelligence and machine learning based applications will increase rapidly in various different fields. We will see more examples of this in the next couple of months. MEB Assistant is the first of its kind in the public sector and it is also very important as it reveals our society's ability to comply with changing conditions. It also managed to catch the attention of approximately 18 million students, more than 1 million teachers and parents."

 

Pointing out that the Ministry has the advantage of disseminating this application to all activities of MEB, Selçuk went on to say that, "MEB Assistant can answer all kinds of questions about our Ministry. Couple of weeks ago, I asked "When will schools open?" to MEB Assistant. Everybody was asking this question to me... I looked at the answer but I won't tell it now."

 

Minister Selçuk stressed that they have to develop awareness of children about the future, transform parent's interaction methods and communication language and adapt the language of teachers to the terminology of the new age. He added that this new application which can be an example for the whole world gave the Ministry the opportunity to give password, renew password, search class programs, examination dates, organize interviews with teachers, repeat classes and answer questions about all activities of the Ministry. 

 

Noting that such applications eliminate the gap between the practice and the theory, Ziya Selçuk said, "Artificial intelligence is a new milestone in our journey to digital transformation. You will see similar applications in the classrooms. In previous months, as a country which is among leading states of the world in support software of exam preparations we see that it is possible for more than 1 million students to use artificial intelligence every day."

 

Minister of National Education Selçuk stated that different teams from different cities of the country have been carrying out projects about how to use artificial robots, artificial assistatns and chat robots in education while a group of teachers from 10 cities who named themselves as "artificial intelligence group" are having regular meetings with artificial intelligence experts and academicians. He also mentioned that the Ministry has been working on 2020-2040 artificial intelligence strategy document adding that many trans-disciplinary topics such as robotic coding and computational algorithmic thinking are included in the artificial intelligence ecosystem.

 

Selçuk said that he was present at the TÜBİTAK 2020 High School Students Research Projects finals and majority award winning projects were based on artificial intelligence.

 

Following his speech, Minister Selçuk showed members of the press how to use this application. Members of the press requested Minister Selçuk to ask MEB Assistant when the schools will be opened. A journalist asked if the MEB Assistant would answer the questions of the press. Selçuk said, "You can start using this application every day. MEB Assistant will answer your questions."

 

Answering a question if schools will be opened on September 21, Minister Selçuk said, "There is no need for asking this question to me while there is this application." He referred the same question to the MEB Assistant and the application responded: "Schools will open on August 31 and face to face education will begin on September 21."