FORMER MINISTER OF NATIONAL EDUCATION TEVFİK İLERİ COMMEMORATED ON HIS 61ST DEATH ANNIVERSARY

02 January 2023 12:43

Minister Özer participated in the "Ahmet Tevfik İleri Commemoration for the 61st Anniversary of His Death" organized by Ankara Tevfik İleri Anatolian Imam Hatip High School. Özer wished for God's mercy upon Celalettin Ökten, who contributed to the opening of Imam Hatip schools, especially Tevfik İleri and Adnan Menderes.
 
Stating Tevfik İleri is the hero of the story of Imam Hatip schools, Özer said that he showed progress can be made by the hand of the state and integrated the demands of the people of this land to live in an integrated manner with their values, to bring their story to life without confronting the state and the nation.
 
Özer emphasized that aiming to enable children to learn their religion freely and take their gains to the future, the people made a great sacrifice to open Imam Hatip schools. Noting that the demand for Imam Hatip was realized by the great and brave steps of Tevfik İleri, Celalettin Ökten and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes in 1951-52. He added that Imam Hatip schools emerged as a different education model as an integral part of the education system thanks to the contributions of the people.
 
Reminding that the barriers against Imam Hatip schools continued, Özer stated that, they were faced with the coefficient regulation that prevented vocational and Imam Hatip high school graduates from accessing higher education in 1999. Stating that the aim the regulation is to prevent academically successful people from going to vocational and Imam Hatip high schools and becoming governors, politicians and bureaucrats, Özer said that Imam Hatip schools suffer from anti-democratic practices in education policies the most. Minister Özer stated that the torch lit by heroes such as Tevfik İleri and Celalettin Ökten is now in the hands of leaders such as our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to solve those problems one by one and walk towards the future confidently.
 
Saying that the most important instrument in increasing human capital is education, Özer said, as a result of the steps taken by our President in the last 20 years, without making any discrimination, by removing the antidemocratic practices in front of education, the enrollment rate in 5-year-olds has increased from 11 percent to 99 percent, the schooling rate in secondary education from 44 percent to 95 percent in higher education within 20 years. Emphasizing that the schooling rate has reached 45 percent from 14 percent, Özer said that the last 20 years corresponded to a historical period in which the state merged with the nation, and they saw its reflections in education very easily.
 
Stating that all anti-democratic practices have been abolished in the last two Özer said, despite the headscarf ban in this country in the past, most of the students are wearing headscarves.
 
Özer said that students from İmam Hatip schools left the country in 1999 because of the coefficient regulation. Stating that the story of Tevfik İleri, Celalettin Ökten and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's is to move the country to the future in peace together with the society and the state, he stressed that the new century will be the 'Century of Türkiye' because seventy years of delay in education have all been compensated in the last two decades thanks to the developments during the republican era. Minister Özer said our country will show itself as a much stronger country in the new century, not only as an economically developed country, but also as a country that shows the world how to be a country that encompasses compassion, brotherhood and solidarity. Stating that they work with great determination to carry the torch received from Tevfik İleri to the future, Özer stated that they aim to leave a beautiful story to the country, to make people a part of that story, and to build a country where the names of Allah are manifested.
 
Özer reminded them that they met with the representatives of private education institutions last week aiming to solve the problems they have faced and to provide better quality service. He said that they will meet with the representatives of private education institutions and share the increased tuition fees with the public this week, after the PPI and CPI rates are determined.

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