Some 40,000 foreign teachers to be assigned in Turkey

A new Ministry of Education program plans to bring 40,000 foreign teachers to Turkey for language courses. According to the plan, foreign teachers will be assigned not only to elementary schools and high schools but also to kindergartens.

Some non-governmental organizations have already found fault with the new education program, criticizing government spending to bring in foreign teachers while 400,000 Turkish teachers are waiting for assignments.

Ünal Akyüz, head coordinator of the projects department in the Ministry of Education, said the criticism is baseless because the plan will help the education system in Turkey.

Akyüz said there are currently 48,000 English teachers in Turkey. According to the plan, up to 10,000 foreign English teachers will come to Turkey every year for four years, meaning 40,000 foreign teachers will be assigned to work in the country.

The project will start in the beginning of next academic year, he told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "The Turkish teachers will accompany foreign ones. They will be not allowed to be alone in the classrooms," he said.

Zübeyde Kılıç, head of the education personnel union Eğitim-Sen, said the ministry’s statement that the foreign teachers would attend the courses accompanied by local teachers is a bad excuse, Anatolia News Agency reported Thursday.

During a protest held by Eğitim-Sen, members voiced their grievances with slogans such as, "We want to import ministers, but not teachers," and "Did you forget your own teachers waiting for assignment?"

According to Kılıç, the ministry is planning to hire foreign teachers who will be paid nearly twice as much as current Turkish language teachers, Anatolia News Agency reported.

A press statement for the protest asked, “When an experienced teacher earns 1,974 Turkish Liras a month, and a foreign teacher earns 3,000 liras a month, what does it mean?”

According to Akyüz, an average English teacher from Turkey is currently paid 2,200 Turkish Liras a month, and foreign teachers would be paid $1,500 a month, which is about 2,000 Liras.

The new education program also aims to establish English cafes where fun and educational courses such as English through music and English through drama could be both given, said Akyüz. "With the participation of foreign and Turkish EFL teachers, the ministry is planning to organize extracurricular activities."

"These teachers will sign only one-year contracts. Those who satisfy the school will continue teaching, and those who are found unsuccessful will be sent back," said Akyüz, adding that there would be no obligations because the ministry determines the criteria for the program.

According to Akyüz, English-language education in Turkey focuses on teaching English grammar, so students’ English speaking skills suffer. Thus, many people, even graduates of Anatolia High Schools in which English lessons are mandatory, cannot speak the language well.

Because conversation skills are important, Turkey should fix this problem, said Akyüz.

Akyüz also said the ministry is planning to send 3,000 Turkish teachers with high marks in language exams to the United States or Canada in order to take courses for teaching English as a foreign language, such as DELTA and CELTA.

Mahfuz Yalçınkaya, the press consultant for Eğitim Bir-Sen, another Turkish education union, said his group was not sure whether the foreign teachers would bring a secret agenda along with their language skills to the elementary schools and kindergartens of Turkey.

"There could be missionaries among the teachers, or they may have other goals like promoting their own culture," he added.


/Hurriyet Daily News/