02 May 2022 12:22

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said he had visited more than 40 cities as a part of his official visits and saw that vacant village school buildings are an important problem. Noting that the priority of his Ministry is to reopen these buildings for education, Özer pointed out that they have decreased the number of student criteria to open preschool classrooms from 10 students to five students. This decision has provided an important improvement in the preschool schooling rates in rural areas and 12 thousand students enrolled in preschool education in such areas within a short period of time.
 
The second leg of using vacant village school buildings is opening public education courses for those who returned to their villages from bigger cities.
  
Four Ministries will cooperate as a part of this project 
Village school buildings which cannot be used as education centers anymore will be used as public education centers.
 
"All village schools will be included in this project. We are aiming at organizing agriculture and husbandry training programs for villagers. We will carry out this process in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest. On the other hand, we will use some village schools as summer camps. Our partner in this process is the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We will also cooperate with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change for the transformation of village schools according to the needs of their area," said Özer.
 
Apiculture training programs 
Minister Özer noted that agriculture and husbandry gained more importance in light of global supply chain and water shortage problems adding that it is crucial to use existing capacity in the most productive way possible.
 
"Within this framework, we will open public education courses in village schools in an effort to raise awareness about agriculture and husbandry and teach new approaches and techniques in these fields. We will also open apiculture training programs in village schools," said Özer.
 
Minister Özer pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic once more revealed the importance of qualified production and high value added products in the completive capacity of countries in the global market.
 
"In this light, we must make investments in an effort to increase the quality of human resources and production capacity," added Özer.