31.10.2023 Ankara
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) Education Council Meeting was held at TOBB Twin Towers Social Facilities with the participation of Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin and TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu.
In his speech here,
TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that education is the basic
building block of a country.
Pointing out that the
private sector’s appropriate initiatives in the field of education will
increase the quality of universities and contribute to the development of human
capital, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “With this vision, we, as TOBB, established the
TOBB Türkiye Education Council in 2006. Since then, our council has been acting
as a bridge between the private sector and the public sector to increase the
quality of education and make it sustainable with its people-oriented
approach.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that the council in question approaches each branch of education with a
different sensitivity and that they share the problems experienced in the
sector with the relevant institutions and follow up on their solutions.
Explaining that the
slowdown in cash flow in the market, high inflation and cost increases are
challenging them, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “On the other hand, there are practices
that lead to unfair competition in our sector. We are constantly trying to keep
these and similar problems on the agenda.”
Pointing out that they
have built 81 schools in 81 provinces, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “The number of
educational facilities we have brought to our country has reached 153. Thanks
to the National Contribution to Education Protocol we signed with our Ministry
of National Education in 2022, we will build 154 new schools in 154 districts.
Thus, the number of educational facilities we will bring to our country will
reach 307.”
Stating that education
is the only investment that does not make a loss, Hisarcıklıoğlu said: “Again,
we started to work together with the public and private sectors in vocational
education, the first foundations of which were laid by our Minister. With the
Vocational Education Cooperation Protocol we signed with our Ministry, we
manage 128 vocational high schools across Türkiye with the support of our
Ministry, as TOBB and chambers and exchanges. As the business world, we want to
meet the qualified human resources we need from vocational high schools and vocational
training centers. With the vision of our Minister, we continue to work non-stop
to make vocational education a center of attraction for young people, parents
and the business world.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that significant progress has been made in the field of education in Türkiye in
recent years and said, “We should not stop here; our main focus in the second
century of our Republic should be the quality of education. The main element of
the quality of education is the teacher. Effective use of digital environments
and skills in the learning process is necessary for integration with an
increasingly digitalized world.”
- Minister Yusuf Tekin
Minister of National
Education Yusuf Tekin stated that as of the 2023-2024 Academic Year, there are
currently 2,403 vocational and technical Anatolian high schools and said,
“There are 53 fields and 114 branches in these high schools and when we look at
the total, we have 1,092,536 students. In all institutions, 2,660,291 students
are currently studying in vocational high schools and Vocational Education
Centers (MESEM). This figure is a very big number. If we can evaluate this
figure functionally, neither the sector will need personnel in this sense, nor will
our children have any concerns about the future. Therefore, I would like to
carry the cooperation with you further in order to manage such a large
workforce and such a large area.”
Stating that they want
to take measures to make it easier for students to choose vocational high
schools, Minister of National Education Tekin said: “In this sense, we prefer
not to use the concept of intermediate staff in order to make our vocational
high schools attractive. We should use other expressions instead. If we do
this, we will at least give them a partial attraction. When we look at our
vocational high schools, we see that they have very central locations and very
beautiful locations in the provinces. If we revise these, we will become a
point of attraction for our students.”