Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

- TOBB TOBB Vice President Öztürk

TOBB Vice President Selçuk Öztürk noted that they had gathered to discuss important topics of the education sector, “The main element of development and enrichment is human capital. I mean, competent people who are hungry to learn, open to innovation, questioning and dreaming. With this awareness, we support our education community and give all the support we can, and we will continue to do so.”

Selçuk Öztürk stated that, as TOBB, they built schools to the whole country with the 81 Schools in 81 Provinces project, said, “Very recently, on February 3^rd, we moved to build 154 schools in 154 districts with the “National Education Contribution Protocol” signed with the introductions of our Minister of National Education in this hall. Thus, the number of training facilities built for our country by TOBB will increase to 307. We will continue to invest in the future of our country, knowing that investment in education is never a loss.”

Öztürk said that Turkey has made great strides in education in private sector and public cooperation in recent years. “‎In the past, the infrastructure, especially in our educational institutions, was not in good condition.‎ In other words, both the number of classrooms was very inadequate and the physical conditions of the existing schools were not what they should be. We have reached a very good point in terms of the number of classrooms and the physical and partly technological infrastructure of our schools. It will be even better with the efforts of our state and our school founders.”

- Deputy Minister of National Education Şensoy

Deputy Minister of National Education Sadri Şensoy stated in his speech that bringing all segments of society together for education will contribute to the increase in quality in education. Şensoy emphasized that the education system should be seen as a whole with public and private educational institutions, saying that private education institutions bear an important burden of the system and that 9 percent of the total students are educated in 11,039 private education institutions.

Providing information about the activities of the Ministry of National Education, Sadri Şensoy explained that they have launched a mobilization in the field of preschool education and have built 86 new kindergartens in a short time. Şensoy reported that they have reached 90 percent in preschool education.

Recalling the protocol recently signed between the Ministry of National Education and TOBB, Deputy Minister Sadri Şensoy said, “154 new schools will be built in 154 districts. We thank TOBB very much for this.”

Stating that they have also made serious moves in vocational education, Şensoy noted that TOBB is again the most important stakeholder in this regard and they have functionalized the education and employment cycle. Deputy Minister of National Education Sadri Şensoy said, “We personally involve the sector with on-the-job training and internships.”

- TOBB Education Council President Ekinci

TOBB Education Council President Dr. Yusuf Ekinci said that there are those who believe that Turkey will be one of the top ten countries in the world in the twenty-first century, but that Turks have always achieved difficult goals in history.

Ekinci stated that Turkey has made great efforts to reach the level of modern civilization in 99 years, and that the driving forces of this development are democracy, education and science.

Council President Ekinci said: “Until now, generally, when it comes to 'quality education,' the number of students per teacher was emphasized on the material factors that influenced the quality of their education, such as the class availability. Quality is not limited to these. The quality of an education, its success in achieving predetermined objectives, determines the suitability of these objectives to the needs and expectations of the society. If mistakes were made in determining the purposes of education, even the most excellent applications cannot be considered quality education. Quality education is student-centric. All courses and extracurricular education activities are essential to gain the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors expected of it. Lessons are not goals, but tools. Attitudes and behaviors and qualifications that are intended to be permanent in students are given in all courses, albeit by different methods.”

Ekinci stated that there is a great interest and investment in digitalization and artificial intelligence today, and mentioned that the rise in learning is the basis of this theory. “In order for our country's young and dynamic population to become an opportunity for social and economic development, two issues must be considered first. The first is to develop a system in Turkey that will ensure that every student reaches the minimum level of proficiency, and the second is to build a youth that understands the world and each other.”