CHP Deputy Chairman Karabıyık: 'All Teachers Are Experts'

CHP Deputy Chairman Lale Karabıyık: “All teachers are experts; This practice contradicts the principle of “teaching profession is a profession of expertise”.

Lale Karabıyık, Deputy Chairman of the CHP for Educational Policies and Bursa Deputy, evaluated the practices that cause the expert teacher-head teacher distinction among teachers with her press statement.

CHP Deputy Chairman Karabıyık made the following statement:

“There are more than 1 million employees in the field of education and approximately 18 million 250 thousand students in formal education. Education is a special field in which almost all our citizens are involved. Teaching is the most important subject of the field of education. The main role in the progress and development of education is teachers. Teachers have an indispensable place in the development of an individual's personality and contemporary society.

For years, there was a need for the Teaching Profession Law in order to separate teaching from other civil servants, to provide academic and scientific freedom to teachers, to emphasize the importance of duty, to ensure that teachers benefit from a fair status and gain the public respect they deserve, and our party had already prepared such a study. We have repeatedly emphasized that the Law on the Teaching Profession should emerge as a text agreed upon with all stakeholders. However, this was not done. The Law on the Teaching Profession was enacted in February with a content that was opposed even by the union close to the government.

The Basic Education Law No. 14, which entered into force on 1973 June 1739, states that “Teaching is a specialty profession that takes over the education, training and related management duties of the State. Teachers are responsible for performing these duties in accordance with the aims and basic principles of Turkish National Education. As can be understood from the definition, teaching is a specialized profession.

However, the Ministry of National Education has prepared a 180-hour program for taking the specialist teacher exam and 240 hours for taking the head teacher exam, by separating the teachers as specialists and head teachers. Teachers will be entitled to take the exam to be held in November if they watch and complete these programs broadcast over the Teacher Information Network (ÖBA) during the summer break.

If teaching is a special profession, it is not a correct practice to divide it into career steps. All teachers are experts; This practice contradicts the principle of “teaching profession is a profession of expertise”.

The expertise of our teachers, who have devoted their years to this profession and to raising our future, cannot be reduced to an exam after 180-240 hours of videos. This application should be abandoned.

As our Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu stated, teaching is a sacred profession and teachers are our valuables. It is dishonorable to subject our teachers to career tests. There will be no such practices in our government.”