Monitoring Vocational Life Centres: An Apron Cannot Cover Up Poverty

Sibel Gökçe Evci, secretary of the Ankara No. 1 branch of Eğitim Sen, criticized the Education Ministry’s circular for the new school year. She said many areas of teachers’ professional lives are determined and monitored centrally, leaving them to act within boundaries drawn by the ministry.

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Many areas of professional life are determined and monitored centrally, and between the lines of the circular, the teacher appears as an implementer expected to operate within boundaries drawn by the ministry.

“Teachers need secure employment, and students need free meals, clean water and quality public education, not aprons for teachers and advice for students,” Evci said. In her view, the circular presents teachers as implementers expected to operate inside a framework set by the ministry.

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Teachers need secure employment, and students need free meals, clean water and quality public education, not aprons for teachers and advice for students.

She argued that an apron cannot hide the worsening problems facing education workers, schools’ shortages of resources and personnel, or the poverty that follows children into the classroom. The criticism presents the ministry’s approach as inadequate against the material pressures affecting schools and families.

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An apron cannot hide either the increasingly severe problems of education workers, schools’ shortages of resources and personnel, or the poverty that follows children into the classroom.