Turkish Culture ~ School’s Out :-)
School’s Out Today!
This is how Amazon feels about school being out, and I don’t blame her. Ever since coming to Turkey I’ve simply observed the way things are done and really adjusted from the ways of my native culture. Indeed most of what occurs in Turkey is far more organic, and sensible, than what today stands for the U.K lifestyle.
I love Amazon’s village school, its teachers, the class sizes, the willingness to listen and take risks. There is a real community spirit about the place and Turunç School is really a credit to the Turkish Ministry of Education.
If only one might say the same for the Ministry! By many accounts the inspectors are a band of ‘job’s worths’ interested in picking up bureaucratic errors whilst imparting little of use about how to nurture and motivate children.
Recently Irem had occasion to apply to the Ministry of Education to obtain a Turkish equivalence for her educational qualifications. After several months she received a letter stating that either she, or a representative, must call at the Ministry offices in Ankara to collect it in person!
So what, you might ask?
Well, when you apply for Turkish Citizenship, which is surely of equal if not much greater importance than mere paper qualifications, when it’s conferred someone writes and tells you. It’s true that you then need to go in person to an office to obtain your I.D. card, but at least the office is local.
Now you would think, would you not, that the Ministry of Education representing the brains of our great republic might find it in their hearts to respond with sensitivity, and at least the efficiency of the Ministry that deals in citizenship?
After receiving such a heart and brain transplant maybe they could devise a school holiday system that doesn’t annually decant children onto the streets in just the months when the weather is at it’s very worst and most dangerous for families to travel to see distant relatives.
A Hint At Tomorrow’s Topic!
