IMPROVE EDUCATION FOR MINORITIES, SAYS REPORT

Hurriyet
March 17 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – The government should take action against the difficulties
minorities face in education, says a new report released by
the Turkish branch of the London-based Minority Rights Group
International. Education in mother tongue, access to education and
mandatory religion courses are a problem for both recognized minorities
and others

An international group has reported that Turkey needs to address its
education and government policies that promote Turkish identity and
nationalism in a manner that denies the rights of other ethnic and
religious identities.

The report was released by Minority Rights Group International, or MRG,
at a press conference in Istanbul yesterday. Current minority policy
fails to address educational rights not only for Greek, Armenian and
Jewish communities but also for diverse groups such as Assyrians,
Kurds, Roma, Laz and Caucasians in Turkey, read the report titled,
"Forgotten or Assimilated? Minorities in the Education System of
Turkey."

One of the main problems minorities are facing in the education system
is a violation of the right to education in their mother tongue,
read the report.

No public school uses a minority language as the language of
instruction and no minority language is taught even as a foreign
language at public schools, according to the report.

Apart from legal problems, minority schools also face administrative
difficulties. The vice-headmaster assigned to the minority schools by
the state’s National Education Directorate has more authority in the
schools than the headmaster. "This means schools are being managed
by two different heads," said the editor-in-chief of Apoyevmatini,
a Greek-language Istanbul newspaper, Mihalis Vasiliadis, at the
press conference. Garo Paylan, board member of the private Armenian
YeÅ~_ilköy Primary School, said minority schools face economic
problems in employing teachers with a good education in language or
other courses.

Another significant problem is the history textbooks that depict
Armenians as betrayers. He mentioned the recent case when the Ministry
of Education sent out to schools a documentary based on claims that
Armenians killed Turks in 1915. The Ministry of Education has stopped
the viewing of the film following reaction from minority communities.

Turkish identity and nationalism are promoted as fundamental values in
the education system, while minority cultures are ignored, according
to the report. The oath read in primary schools every morning makes
children from minority communities feel worthless, said Vasiliadis,
adding that the oath should not be required, at least for minority
schools. The oath says: "I am a Turk, I am correct, I am hardworking
… My presence is a present to the presence of Turks. Happy is the
person who says ‘I am a Turk.’ "

"Every time when I was reading the oath I felt scared … I was a
Kurd at home and I was becoming a Turk at school. I was confused," an
Alevi-Kurdish school teacher was quoted as saying in the report. The
report encourages the government to remove articles prohibiting the
protection of minority cultures and language from all the codes.

Another critical issue in the education system is religious education.

All school children must attend mandatory classes on religious culture
and ethics. But the main teachings are based on the principles of
the Sunni sect of Islam, instead of general teachings on the history
of religions, according to Nurcan Kaya, London-based MRG’s Turkey
coordinator and author of the report.

Only Christians and Jews are permitted to opt out but they must
disclose their religion to do so, in contradiction to the main
principle of the Turkish Constitution, which prohibits the forceful
disclosure of religion, she said.

"Mandatory or selective, the religious textbooks should be written
in a perspective covering all the non-Muslim religions and every
sect of Islam," said Serap Topcu, a lawyer from the Cem Foundation,
one of the influential Alevi organizations in Turkey.

The report found that minority pupils in these classes were sometimes
asked to observe Muslim rituals that were not listed in the curriculum,
such as performing ablutions, prayer and attending mosque. The access
to education is also a problem for some diverse groups in Turkey not
officially considered minorities.

Official minorities

"Turkey recognizes only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as minorities,
but no other minorities such as Assyrians, Kurds, and Roma people
have the right to open their own schools or have education in their
mother tongue at school," Nurcan Kaya said.

"Assyrians do not have a school within the Turkish education system
for we do not have the rights other minorities have," said Muzaffer
Ä°ris, board member of Mesopotamia Culture and Solidarity Association,
or MEZODER. Around 30,000 Assyrians living in Turkey are trying to
learn their mother tongue in churches in a very backward and unhealthy
atmosphere, he said.

Kurds and Roma people also face difficulties accessing education,
said the report, referring to a survey that revealed "Kurdish families
displaced by conflict in the 1990s in provinces such as Diyarbakır
and Istanbul, include more than half of the displaced children who
did not attend any schools," mainly due to poverty and the need to
work. Roma children also do not attend or drop out of school mainly
due to poverty.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress