Ismet Yilmaz

The Turkish government has submitted a bill to parliament that foresees the establishment of 15 new universities across the country, Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz told state-run Anadolu Agency on April 20.

Turkish and Albanian Education Ministers on Wednesday attended a first Albanian class in the village of Halil Beyli at the Alija Izetbegovic Middle School near Izmir, where a significant portion of the residents have Balkan origins.

Following criticism of Turkey’s education system from Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Director Andreas Schleicher, Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz claimed that the government made much-criticized recent changes to the curriculum in order to reach global standards.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hinted at overhauling university entrance exams after the removal of a key exam that has been allowing the placement of nearly 1.3 million secondary school students to various high schools in Turkey. 

As Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz confirmed on Sept. 19 that Turkey's high school entrance exam will not be held this year, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) continued to raise concerns on the issue, with one of its deputies claiming that the move aims to funnel students to religion-focused high schools.

Hundreds of thousands of children across Turkey are working in agriculture, with the latest official figure from five years ago citing the number at 400,000. Experts say the real figure is much higher when Syrian refugee children are included.

There are almost 400,000 seasonal child agricultural laborers across Turkey, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) stated in 2012. 

The Education Ministry will give away 190 million school books for free to students for the 2017-2018 education year, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Sept. 14, citing the ministry's Support Services Department General Manager Salih Ayhan.

The government is working on a regulation to have drivers' licenses temporarily suspended if they commit a red light violation twice, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu stated on Sept. 12.

"In the event of a repetition of red light violations, along with the imposition of a monetary fine the temporary suspension of the driver's license will come into effect," Soylu said.

The Cem Foundation, a foundation that represents a portion of Turkey's Alevi sect, has asked the Turkish Education Ministry for the concepts of "Salafism" and "jihad" to be removed from the renewed education curriculum, saying these concepts could make "radical religious groups" feel encouraged.

A member of the Turkish parliament's national education commission has said there is no use in teaching mathematics to students who don't know jihad. 

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Ahmet Hamdi Çamlı praised a recent move to include the concept of "jihad" to the country's new education curriculum, saying that "jihad is Islam's most prior element."