Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Council President Ekinci stated that there are important issues for the development of the sector on the agenda of the meeting and stressed that the decisions to be taken will be followed up for implementation.

Ekinci thanked the members for their participation in the meeting, which was attended by a large number of people, and gave a brief briefing on the developments since the most recent meeting.

Prof. Dr. Cihad Demirli, Chairman of the MEB Board of Education and Training, stated that the 20^th National Education Council, which was held between 1-3 December 2021, is an organization attended by school owners, educators, students, parents and NGOs and where recommendations were made.

Demirli stated that 128 recommendations had been made to support the professional development of teachers and to increase the status of teaching, in line with Equal Opportunities in Basic Education, including the dissemination of preschool education, the improvement of special education and rehabilitation services, increasing access to basic education and quality in education, monitoring the quality of the education system, strengthening the general structure of vocational education under the heading of Improving Vocational Education, strengthening human resources, increasing the reputation of vocational education, improving teacher training under the heading Of Teachers' Professional Development.

The documents prepared by the commission established within the Council regarding the Teaching Profession Law, which has been widely reported in the press recently, were shared with the Members by the Commission Chairman Cem Gülan.

In addition, it was emphasized that the criteria for teachers' professional status, working conditions, personal rights, criteria for selection and assignment to the profession, career steps, professional development are important and it is important to differentiate some aspects of the arrangements to be made to public and private schools. Industry representatives have been consulted on the matter.

The importance of taking the opinion of the sector representatives prior to legislative changes such as Law no. 5580 on Private Education Institutions was emphasized; the members noted that the regulatory changes are very frequent.

The demands of the members to continue the VAT reduction given earlier in the sector, which faced many difficulties with the pandemic, and to benefit from insurance and tax deductions were forwarded to the public representatives.

Members said that teachers and expert teachers in private schools, another important issue for the sector, needed to organize their lesson hours and expressed the difficulties in English language teaching courses.

Vedat Kuşgözoğlu, head of the Education Policy Department of the Directorate General of Private Education Institutions of the Ministry of National Education, also gave general information about the sector, answered the questions of the Council Members and stated that they are always ready to work with the sector to solve the problems.

Süleyman Akgül, head of the Workplace-Based Vocational Education Department of the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education of MEB, who was invited to the meeting regarding the importance of vocational education, the problems experienced and the measures to be taken, made an assessment about the Project to Promote and Disseminate Vocational Education.

At the meeting, which also discussed the problems experienced by OIZ Internal and External Vocational and Technical Anatolian High Schools, the importance of supporting vocational high schools which provide intermediate staff to the industry and whose importance has become more understood in recent years by the State in order to continue quality, qualified education was noted.

The meeting also discussed the minimum wage increase and discussed the potential impact of the planned wage increase on businesses and employees.