President Erdoğan attends appointment ceremony of teachers

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the appointment ceremony of teachers.

Delivering a speech at the ceremony held at Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul, President Erdoğan, underscoring that the average class size in Turkey, which had once been some 30, was now 22 that nearly corresponded to the OECD’s average class size, said: “Today, the average class size at elementary schools in Turkey are lower than that of in such countries as the UK, Australia and France, and are nearly at the same level as in Germany and the US. In the similar vein, with the appointments we made, we have reached, even surpassed, the OECD’s average student-teacher ratio, which is 15 in primary education and 13 in lower and upper secondary education. Today the number of students per teacher in our country is around 17 at elementary schools, 16 at secondary schools and 12 at high schools.”

Touching upon the significant improvements made in the personal rights of teachers, President Erdoğan stated that Turkey had the lowest compulsory teaching time for teachers in Europe, and added: “According to the OECD data, nearly half of the teachers in Europe say they are under stress at work. This ratio stands at some 20 per cent in Turkey. In other words, the teachers in Turkey are among the teachers that experience the lowest amount of stress in the entire Europe. In addition, we have improved to a great extent the physical and technological conditions at our schools thanks to the investment we have made in education.”