Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk answered questions by journalists about face to face education following his visit to TOKİ Mehmet Akif Ersoy Primary School in Düzce.

 

Stressing that the Ministry has been closely monitoring the intense and dynamic process that began with the opening of schools on March 2, Minister Selçuk said, "Within this framework, I am happy to say that more than 80 percent of primary school students are attending face to face education, attendance in secondary schools is 76 percent and it is around 70 percent in high schools."

 

Selçuk said that statistics concerning attendance on face to face education are positive adding that, "Of course, our priority is face to face education but we are among the first five OECD countries such as Slovakia, Costa Rica and Colombia that have closed their schools the longest period of time. It is because we prioritize health conditions."

 

Noting that the Ministry is making decisions about every single city after discussing  local health conditions with the provincial public health boards, Selçuk stated, "I would like to thank all public workers who contributed to our decisions. We are passing through a very hard time but I believe that we will overcome these hardships together. Meanwhile, the vaccination process continues. Every day, we are monitoring changing conditions in order to make joint decisions. We wish to continue face to face education with a higher attendance rate and we wish to see improvement in health conditions. Our priority is face to face education.  Despite our wish to keep schools open by considering health conditions, we see that we kept our schools close for a longer time when compared with other countries. It is because we prioritize health."

 

Minister Selçuk also thanked parents who cooperated with teachers and education officials during this process.