Education Ministry introduces new draft curriculum, asks people to contribute

Turkey's Education Ministry has introduced a draft curriculum that will cover all 51 compulsory classes that are taught in elementary, middle and high schools to the public opinion, while establishing a platform in which people will be able to leave comments and make contributions. 

Announcing the program on its website on Jan. 13, the ministry shared its renewed draft work for the curriculum that is expected to be implemented by the upcoming education year to begin in September 2017 and which makes a number of changes to the current system amid criticisms.

According to the plan, the platform will be open until Feb. 10 and will enable people to contribute and share their opinions for all classes except religion and morality classes. After soliciting the comments that are expected to come from students, teachers, parents and education experts, a corresponding commission at the Education Ministry will re-evaluate its draft and finalize its work by Feb. 20. The process will then be followed with the writing of new textbooks.  

The main set of contents of the draft curriculum include topics such as "historical conscience," "healthy living and aging," "July 15 democracy victory," "21st-century skills," "Kemalism," "Education of Values," "National Education Quality Certificate," "Turkey Competencies Frame" and "Living Skills." 

The new program is set to provide less academic information for students.

Subjects like the country's historic, cultural, social and moral past will be covered from the perspective of national and moral education. 

The draft curriculum was designed in coordination with the content of centralized examinations such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the OECD's...