Education bill set to hit floor amid new debate in Turkey

  

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says there will be no exam for students to enroll in universities and the vocational education in the country will be boosted, while the ruling Justi,ce and Development Party imposes a travel ban on its lawmakers as of tomorrow to make sure that the draft bill is approved in Parliament

The university entry exam will be scrapped and that the thousands of private teaching centers that prepare students for the exam would be closed, Prime MinisterRecep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. 

“Those centers will either turn themselves into high schools or will be shut down. We do not want people to spend their scarce [financial] resources on that,” Erdoğan told reporters accompanying him on a flight to Seoul on the weekend.

Erdoğan also emphasized the need to boost vocational education, pointing to European countries, where he said up to 70 percent of the students attend such schools. 

“We’ll allow organized industrial zones to open vocational schools. The kids will both study and do internship. They may earn money as well,” he said.

The distance learning option in a controversial education reform bill has been designed for the girls of conservative families, Erdoğan said despite previous denials on the matter from officials.

“Particularly in the southeast, families refuse to send their daughters to school after they enter adolescence. Distance learning is for that. The [bill] would open the door for home study,” s. Officials had previously said the home study option after eight years of regular classes would be available only to limited groups like students with disabilities or prodigies.

The bill, expected to be put up for debate in Parliament tomorrow, has attracted pointed criticism on the grounds that it would undermine the schooling of girl.

Source:http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/education-bill-set-to-hit-floor-amid-new-debate-in-turkey.aspx?pageID=238&nID=16855&NewsCatID=338