Education and Science Workers' Union’s (Eğitim-Sen) Hakkari Branch Head Balıkesir said that it is important that parents and students choose Kurdish as an elective course at schools.

Kurdish is also available as an elective course in the Turkish education system. Speaking to ANF on the subject, Balıkesir pointed out that Eğitim-Sen promotes scientific, academic, secular and democratic education in the mother tongue against all kinds of indoctrination and ideological approaches in education.

Balıkesir remarked that following the introduction of controversial policies by the AKP government, religious foundations, associations and communities have become more active in education. He stated that one of the controversial policies is the imposition of elective courses with religious content by the national education directorates and school administrations.

“Each year, we call on parents and students to raise concerns about this issue. Elective courses should be chosen by students and their parents. They should not be selected by the guidance of school administrations and national education directorates. Course selections should be based on the interests, abilities and skills of the students,” he said.

WE DEFEND EDUCATION IN MOTHER TONGUE

“We believe that every child has a right to receive education in the mother tongue as stated in international conventions. We are in favour of a scientific and democratic education in the mother tongue. We find it incorrect to restrict mother tongue education to elective courses. However, we also believe that it is important that parents and students be allowed to choose Kurdish as an elective course in public schools. It is very meaningful that our parents and students prefer elective courses in the native language of students,” Balıkesir stated.

KURDISH SHOULD BE SPOKEN IN PUBLIC

Balıkesir noted that they wanted to encourage parents to favour elective courses in Kurdish. “We know that two hours of Kurdish language education per week is not enough for the development of children. We would like to point out that it is important to choose a native language in elective courses. Of course, it is extremely essential to allow mother tongue in schools for the preservation and development of the language. Families should speak with their children in their mother tongue in public.”