Minister of National Education Ismet Yılmaz said, “We have made it our goal to give our students all the knowledge that the century has made imperative. But we aim to give the essence of education effectively, without shortening the education time, in the vacation time we gave… We will continue working to reach better standards. We will continue using the system of the 1930’s…” (News)
Comment:
No doubt the most important thing right now in Turkey is the change of the Constitution subject. We, on the other hand, do not refrain from saying that unless the fundamentals of the constitution, which is in use right now and is not planned to be changed, is not changed the new constitution will not be able to solve the problems of the people. We try to present Islamic example to the question of what kind of constitution should there be. Another important subject is the changes they want to make in the curriculum… Taking into consideration the 2023 goals and with more than the contribution of a thousand peoples, the Ministry of National Education explained that they set goals such as “Communication in the native language, communication in other languages, Basic Mathematics, Digital Proficiency, Learning to Learn, Proficiency in Citizenship, Taking initiative and entrepreneurship, Ensure Cultural Expressionism”. The draft on 53 different lessons will be gradually employed for the 1st, 5th and 9th classes in the 2017-2018 education period after 20th of February with the ratification of “the Committee of Education”. There will be no changes in the TEOG, YGS or LYS exams. The 15th of July coup and names such as Aziz Sancar, Kenan Sofuoğlu will be added to the curriculum and the evolution theory will be removed.
Unfortunately for years, things like the headscarf in education, how long should elementary-middle-high education be, how should the exams be, etc. have been discussed and argued. But these discussions and the changes done to these subjects could not change the bad trend. A generation where 3 out of 10 does not work, study or has any plan for the future has appeared with this education system. The measure for success should be individuals with distinct personalities and quality education. However success is affixed to exams in this education system which rings the alarm bells each year. In 2016’s Higher Education Passing Exam (YGS) 32.983 students get 0 points without even managing answer 1 question. The number of students who cannot answer 26 questions out of 160 are 484.000 and this was 25% of the students that enter the exam. We can present a lot more data like this. But the essence of the problem lies in the roots of the education system. The curriculum of the secular democratic capitalist West that is not based upon Islam is one of the main reasons of our children’s present situation.
With this curriculum change the goal of education has not changed. By taking into consideration of the National Education Law (Law number 1739), “To raise countrymen loyal to Ataturk nationalism, who knows their duties and responsibilities to the democratic, secular and juristic social state, the Republic and to make these a habit.” To the question if Ataturk will be reduced in the textbooks the Ministry of National Education (MEB) Undersecretary Yusuf Tekin said that first democracy and nationalism, then Ataturk will be taught. “Ataturk’s love for the nation, Ataturk’s concepts such as democracy, republic and independence, are still taught to our children in the elementary period in the current curriculum. But these have been added to the curriculum after the concept of patriotism, nationalism and democracy have been taught.”
Even in the obligatory religion lessons, a secular religion concept according to the formal ideology will be taught. Even though in biology lessons evolution has been removed Allah’s existence will not be taught. While in Law, Citizenship, Human Rights, Knowledge of Life, Economy and other lessons children will still be taught according to a Western and Capitalist point of view. Again in history lessons Islam and Muslims will be slandered. Again in philosophy lessons perverted views such as Deism, Positivism, Atheism, Secularism, Reincarnation and more will be taught…
As long as education is based upon secularism and democratic values, 23 million of our youth will not be able to prepare for the future. These kinds of changes will not solve the problem. In order to solve these problems one has to understand the Islamic education method. We have to develop education projects according to the Quran and the Sunnah so that we can develop our generations as Islamic personalities. No doubt Hizb ut Tahrir’s study titled “Principles of Education in the Khilafah State” is a model for our country and the whole world on this subject.
Musa Bayoğlu