Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer visited the school building construction site at the Bigadiç district as the first leg of his visit to the Balıkesir province. Later, he visited the Balıkesir Governor's Office. He stated that face-to-face education which began on September 6 is carried out in coordination with the Ministry of Health and classrooms are closed in case of two positive cases. Özer gave the following information about recent state at schools:
"As of last weekend, the Ministry of Health and the Health Science Board reduced the recess period from 14 days to 10 days. Students enrolled in the classrooms which suspended face-to-face education and who do not show any symptoms will be able to go back to school if their PCR tests come negative after 5 days upon the consent of their parents. The current process is more comfortable than September but face-to-face education continues successfully with short term recess periods. Last week, only two out of a total of 71 thousand and 320 schools suspended face-to-face education. As of today, none of our schools are closed due to the pandemic."
"Vaccination rate of primary school teachers with one dose of vaccination reached 98 percent and rate of primary school teachers with two doses of vaccination reached 89 percent"
Özer stressed that the vaccination rate of teachers increases every day. Noting that the rate of teachers with two doses of vaccination reached 85 percent in the entire country, Özer said, "Rate of teachers who are immune to the virus is around 5 percent. As of today, the rate of teachers with two doses of vaccination or immunity to virus reached 90 percent. This is our biggest advantage in face-to-face education. The vaccination rate among primary school teachers is higher than other teachers. Vaccination rate of primary school teachers with one dose of vaccination reached 98 percent and the rate of primary school teachers with two doses of vaccination reached 89 percent."
Özer thanked Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca and members of the Health Science Board for their support during this process adding that they have been closely monitoring schools.
The Minister of National Education stated that 5 weeks of face-to-face education and efforts to increase the quality of education in the city will be discussed at the provincial education assessment meeting in Balıkesir.
Visit to Mimar Sinan Vocational and Technical Anatolia School
Minister Özer visited the Mimar Sinan Vocational and Technical Anatolia School at the Altıeylül district of Balıkesir. Özer visited stands at the school garden and observed the "Ebabil Drone Team" Project carried out in cooperation with the Balıkesir University.
In his meeting with Balıkesir University Rector Prof. Dr. İlter Kuş and students, Özer stated that vocational education provides important information about patents, brand-model and the design registration process. Mentioning the importance of cooperation between the vocational school and the university, Özer said, "We have registered 198 of our products. Our goal was to register 250 products by the end of this year. We believe we will accomplish our goal easily as we have made more than 800 applications for registration. Cooperation with engineering faculties of universities in vocational education will be profitable for students. Faculty teachers can give lectures and you will be able to produce better products. Let's establish an R&D center in the school. Let university students use this center and develop projects with your students. Let's focus on registration of a joint product which will be a first of its kind."
Özer visited the teachers' lounge and thanked teachers for their efforts to increase the quality of education.
Chat with students who called him "Teacher Mahmut"
Minister Özer walked around Balıkesir streets, chatted with storekeepers and people. When a group of students called him "Teacher Mahmut", he had a nice conversation with them and gave them tablet computers as presents.
Visit to Tıbbiyeli Hikmet Vocational and Technical Anatolian School
As a part of his Balıkesir program, Özer visited Tıbbiyeli Hikmet Vocational and Technical Anatolia School which provides education in agriculture, husbandry and health at the Savaştepe district.
Özer said that the Ministry established an R & D center in the school and vowed to give required support.
Özer gave suggestions to the school administrators to produce high value products and to benefit from the advantage of being an important center of education in its field.