Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin stated that the new curriculum draft will be suspended tomorrow afternoon to be shared with the public.
Tekin stated that opinions and suggestions about the new curriculum named "Turkey Century Education Model" can be shared at "gorusoneri.meb.gov.tr".
While making statements about the new curriculum, Minister Yusuf Tekin congratulated children on April 23 National Sovereignty and Children's Day once again and touched upon the intense activities prepared by the Ministry regarding the holiday.
Pointing out the importance of the two special representative sessions they held with children in the historic First Parliament yesterday, Tekin said that the children, who first reenacted the session on April 23, 1920, showed that they enthusiastically protected their ancestors, elders and the founding philosophy of the state, and the second session in the afternoon called "23 April 2071" He stated that in the session, children's perspective on life after approximately 50 years was revealed.
Drawing attention to the importance of the topics that children choose for the future in terms of revealing their expectations, Tekin emphasized that, as the Ministry, children should not fall behind these expectations or tendencies.
“If we stay behind them, the curriculum and education will have no meaning. “We should be able to draw horizons for our children and develop their imaginations about the future.” Tekin underlined that when all these are considered together, studies on the curriculum also show this trend.
The system is evolving to analyze information rather than accessing it.
On the question regarding the main focus of the new curriculum studies called "Turkey Century Education Model", Minister Tekin pointed out the necessity of revising the curricula within certain calendars.
Tekin emphasized that the developments in the world and in the country and the convenience in the sources of information make it necessary to reconsider the curriculum all over the world in accordance with all these processes and said, "If you do not do this, you will not be able to make any progress on the world scale and you will be left behind in the education of our children in the country." made his assessment.
Minister Tekin made the following statements in his evaluation of the main axis of curriculum studies:
“To create an environment where our children can look forward with more confidence, develop themselves better, and develop and realize their dreams with the knowledge they have acquired. Based on this, our first philosophy is to change the philosophy of our education system to enable students to analyze the information they have acquired by gaining skills rather than accessing knowledge and to contribute to the development of these dreams. Therefore, this is the main axis of curriculum studies. In other words, we want our children who are committed to their essence and values, but who can compete with examples in the world, to be able to develop their own dreams. We want children to be able to dream in order to transform the next century into the 'Türkiye Century'. Our curriculum therefore fits into these two axes.”
Minister Tekin stated that they defined the name of the new curriculum as "Turkey Century Education Model" for these reasons and said, "We made an effort to produce a unique model by taking advantage of universal, international models and placing our own values into the system." said.
“Curriculum studies are the product of ten years of work, not the last year”
When asked about the curriculum preparation stages, Minister Tekin explained that the starting point of studies on this subject dates back many years and that the 2017 curriculum change was a first step towards this.
“Therefore, there is a very comprehensive work schedule, starting from 2013, that has brought us to the texts we have reached today.” Tekin stated that during this process, very long exchanges of views were made, analyzes were made based on public reflections, and meetings were held.
Stating that they received all this accumulation as data in the summer months of last year and that they were working to systematize this data, Tekin gave the following information about the preparations carried out:
“More than 20 workshops were held on how to change the curriculum in this process alone. Afterwards, the teams formed for each course held hundreds of meetings and completed the preparations of the curriculum we will announce. In total, during this period, that is, I do not count the previous part, we have held meetings with more than 1000 teachers and academicians since the summer months. 260 academicians and over 700 of our teacher friends regularly attended these meetings. Apart from this, there are also academics and teachers whose opinions we consulted. When we consider all of these, more than 1000 of our friends worked together. Likewise, all units in the central organization of the Ministry declared a mobilization on this issue.”
Minister Tekin thanked especially the General Directorates of Basic Education, Secondary Education, Vocational Technical Education and Religious Education for their efforts in the studies, and the Presidency of the Board of Education and Discipline for their intense efforts in examining the prepared programs.
“The new curriculum will be suspended tomorrow, we want to work together with everyone”
Tekin stated that they will open the new curriculum to public evaluation and said, "Hopefully, we will share it with the public tomorrow afternoon." He made a statement.
Stating that the Ministry of National Education's doors are open to stakeholders or anyone who wants to be a stakeholder, Tekin said: We want to work together with everyone. “I want to contribute to the education and training processes of this country.” As of tomorrow afternoon, we will be sharing a study open to universities, academicians, non-governmental organizations, unions, organizations working in the field of education, politicians, bureaucrats and everyone else. After sharing, anyone among the people I just mentioned can share their opinions and suggestions by going to 'gorusoneri.meb.gov.tr'.
Minister Tekin, on the question of how long the curriculum will remain suspended, said, “Our plan is one week. If suggestions and opinions continue to come intensively, we can extend the period, but since it has been discussed for a long time, I assume everyone has experience and preparation on this issue. We would be happy if they shared it with us during this time. If the intense exchange of views continues, we are in a position to extend the period. Our plan is currently for a one-week suspension period. "At the end of one week, we will revise the model in line with the latest criticism, opinions, suggestions and shares of our Board of Education and approve it for implementation." he said.
“We adopted a participatory approach”
Minister Yusuf Tekin stated that the curriculum change is a final text as a result of a 10-year gradual development and said: “This; What is being done today should not be perceived as a very comprehensive change. This is a point reached gradually as a result of a process... Each of the gradual changes made in previous years are actually elements that feed and complete this process. "All these changes will be a comprehensive and final change that builds on it." said.
Tekin stated that they held many meetings regarding curriculum studies and adopted a "participatory" approach in the content, philosophy and construction process; In this context, he pointed out that he knows his past well, has internalized it, has the values of the world, and has the characteristics to compete with the world, and said: "Undoubtedly, there will be criticisms and suggestions in the public opinion on this issue. The issue of education is not something that people can easily agree on. Since I became a minister, even among the groups that visit me, there are issues on which they disagree and disagree among themselves. In this case, there may be objections and criticisms in the text we have prepared. I find these very natural because education is such a field. This actually enriches education. I don't say this as a criticism. We are trying to produce a social benefit by assimilating all these ideas. The social denominator we have produced is actually built on the minimum common ground on which all these views can agree. When we look at it that way, I'm happy. I hope it will be beneficial for our children.
It will be implemented gradually
Minister Tekin stated that the new curriculum will be implemented gradually starting from the next academic year.
Stating that they do not want different grievances to arise if the new curriculum, which is a comprehensive revision, is implemented in all education and training levels and all grade levels, Tekin said, “The program we have prepared will be implemented in the first grade of each level. "We will start implementing our new program as of next September in four grade levels: pre-school, primary school first grade, secondary school fifth grade and high school ninth grade." made the statement.
Stating that the Board of Education does not accept textbook applications this year for the classes where gradual transition will take place, Tekin said, “The books for these classes are directly written by the relevant general directorates. So, this is the point where it feels natural for a process we have started since September.” he said.
Nine literacy types identified
When asked about the common perspective on the curriculum, Minister Tekin stated that they would share the technical details of the curriculum to be suspended at the launch meeting.
Minister Tekin, who was asked about the innovations in literacy in the curriculum, explained the subject in the curriculum prepared from a holistic perspective as follows: We have identified nine types of literacy: information literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, visual literacy, cultural literacy, citizenship literacy, data literacy, sustainability literacy and art literacy. . Actually, what we mean here is that our children already have enough resources to access information, but we want to provide our children with the skills to read the information they have acquired correctly. The basic philosophy of the event is here anyway...
“With the new curriculum, you are moving from a system based on knowledge acquisition to a system based on skill acquisition. How would you evaluate this? Minister Tekin explained that when the curriculum is compared with systems such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the International Mathematics and Science Trends Survey (TIMSS) implemented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a serious problem is encountered.
Tekin stated that in the country-based comparisons they made on many subjects, they saw that the curriculum was nearly 2 times heavier than its equivalents, and said, "I find this natural because in times when it is difficult to access information, 'Children should also have access to this information.' These have always been included in the curriculum, but over time, while these countries revised their curricula, they removed them, reduced and diluted them, based on the ease of obtaining information. When we looked at our last meeting, we compared it with Japan and England and found that our learning outcomes were 50 percent higher. This leads us to the conclusion that our children cannot acquire the achievements we want them to have in a healthy way.” made his assessment.
Minister Tekin stated that the loaded curriculum created difficulties in achieving results, and publicly stated, "Children could not learn this subject." He said that they faced such criticism.
A world-class curriculum
Emphasizing that whatever is taught in the world is included in the curriculum, and transferring everything else to associate, undergraduate and graduate education, which are progressive educational processes, means dilution, Tekin noted that this is not suitable for children's ability to acquire academic knowledge.
Stating that he received opinions in the monthly routine teachers' room meetings that the weekly lesson hours should be increased in order to train the curriculum, Tekin said, “When we put these on top of each other, there should be an average weekly lesson load of 60-70 hours. Now that this is not possible, what needs to be done is obvious. In this sense, we subjected our curriculum and programs to a serious dilution process. There is no point in removing repeated information and repeating the same topics three or four times or more within the 12-year compulsory education. Secondly, there is no point in sharing information with our children that they may have difficulty obtaining beyond their academic competencies or academic positions. It also becomes unnecessary. Considering all this, we have entered a 35 percent dilution in the curriculum.” he said.
Stating that there will be no decrease in weekly lesson hours with the new curriculum, Tekin said, "For now, we are only focused on revising our programs in a way that can turn the acquired knowledge into skills rather than acquiring knowledge." said.
In-service training begins for teachers
Minister Tekin answered the question about how teachers will implement the new program: "Our General Directorate of Teacher Training and Development, relevant education and training departments, and the Board of Education and Discipline are creating a calendar for our teacher friends to undergo the in-service training process, starting from the moment we complete the final approval process of the programs." . "As soon as the programs are approved, the calendar will be implemented and from now until September, we will have started a very serious in-service training process for our teacher friends regarding the logic, philosophy and implementation of the new program." he replied.
Minister Tekin stated that new areas and workshops will be planned in schools to implement the application programs of the curriculum, and that they will make the application areas a little more intense in the new school plans, and said, "Hopefully, this process will be completed in a few years and our children will have application workshops and application areas where they can apply the theoretical knowledge they have acquired in the lessons." "They also have it." said.