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Professor Yusuf Ozcun, head of YOK and Gulenists
suspects cheating
This paper Hurriyet is one of the few in Turkey not owned and operated by the Gulen Movement. Teachers in Turkey are complaining that the Gulen Movement has inflitrated the teaching institutes up to and including key posts like Professor Ozcun - that non-Gulenists teachers are being pushed out of their jobs. Sound familiar?
Testing scandal may leave Turkish schools without teachersERISA DAUTAJ ŞENERDEM
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren risk not having a teacher on their first day of classes as education officials try to sort out allegations of cheating on the placement exam for civil servants. “We believe the Education Ministry must postpone the deadline to nominate teachers by a week or 10 days,” İsmail Koncuk, the chairman of the Turkish Education Union, or Türk Eğitim-Sen, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in a phone interview Thursday. He said a delay would allow the ministry to see the results of the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office investigation into the cheating allegations. Though the country’s top educational authority has not yet concluded its own inquiry into the accusations that some test-takers had access to the questions before taking the Public Personnel Selection Examination, or KPSS, it has said the claims might have merit. “The questions might have leaked out,” the Higher Education Board, or YÖK’s, Board of Auditors said in a declaration Thursday. The statement, however, does not represent a final finding as the auditors have yet to meet with officials from the Student Selection and Placement Center, or ÖSYM. As the YÖK and Ankara prosecutor’s inquiries continue, union representatives are saying the authorities must act rapidly and thoroughly. The cheating allegations focus on the KPSS10, the exam according to which teachers are selected and placed throughout Turkey. Though the deadline set by the Education Ministry for applications is Friday and the placement decision for 30,000 teacher positions is due to be announced by Tuesday, any appointment decisions risk being canceled if the KPSS results are determined to be invalid. “The [KPSS] exam must be canceled if it is proven that a large number of people have cheated,” Koncuk said, adding that such a possibility was high. The Presidency’s press center has also released a statement saying the allegations on cheating or leaked questions were being followed and have been brought to the attention to the State Supervisory Council. “The Education Ministry refused to postpone the deadline for placement of teachers,” Mehmet Bozgeyik, the secretary-general for the Education and Science Personnel Union, or Eğitim-Sen, told the Daily News. He said the union had presented all the information they possessed to help the investigations of people who registered perfect scores. He also said that they had proof that most of the candidates with perfect scores had close marital, family or housemate relations with each other. The Education Ministry must postpone the placement of teachers until it gets the results of the ongoing investigations lest it “support this messy situation,” Bozgeyik said. Aydın Doğdu, one of the owners of the Kadıköy Çözüm Education Institution, who has been instructing graduates who take the KPSS since 2003, told the Daily News that it was impossible for even a few people to get perfect scores on the exam. “Even [KPSS] experts found some of the questions in this years’ exam difficult to understand and solve,” he said, countering claims that some 350 candidates were able to get perfect scores because the test had been very simple. According to Doğdu, the fact that the number of people with lower scores had decreased was another indicator that there had been cheating. “Normally, the people who get high scores are fewer [in number] than those with low scores,” he said, adding that this year’s results showed the opposite pattern. He added, however, that it would be difficult to properly punish the responsible persons if the cheating claims proved to be true, saying there were gaps in the Turkish Penal Code in this respect. Koncuk disagreed, saying that if the allegations are proven, the responsible parties could be punished for “misconduct of duties” and for harming the future of innocent people. © 2009 Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=kpss-scandal-will-teachers-be-appointed-2010-08-26 |
More on Educational shortfalls in Turkey
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INDICATORS SHOW BIG INADEQUACY IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN TURKEY
Excerpt below:
National and international indicators show that there is a big inadequacy in science and
technology education in Turkey as compared to other countries. This important problem
affects the young students’ structure of thinking perspective and perceptions of nature in a
wrong way. The problems in science and technology education will block creative and
critical thinking, curiosity and positive attitudes towards nature. In order to determine
attitudes towards science and technology education program and the reasons of low
achievement in science education, a questionnaire with 20 items about science and
technology lesson, has been prepared and applied to 84 science and technology lesson
teacher in elementary schools in two different cities (Adıyaman and Malatya) of Turkey.
According to the result of this research, the main problems with science and technology
education are insufficient number of science and technology teachers’ taking active role in
the preparation of the programs, the insufficient in-service training of the science teacher
in the transition state of a new program, the huge numbers of the students in the class,
the informational education orienting students towards only exam achievement, the
broken link with other lessons (e.g. mathematics program) and insufficient physical
conditions of schools (less laboratory opportunities
Discrimination in Primary Education in the
Slums of Turkey: Problems about Equity of
Education
The results of the research demonstrate that the children getting education in the
slums of Ankara can not experience educational equality and justice.
The results of this study show that the opportunities of the schools in
the slums of Ankara are very limited, so the individuals in these
districts can not equally benefit from the education. The families are
aware of the problem they are faced with.
Educational Problems in Turkey
Haha!!!
ReplyDeleteI remember how they used to cheat on the TAKS test all the time just to raise the scores.
Thanks Anonymous, this is something we hear from state to state and country to country.
ReplyDeleteWhat will they do when Texas switches to the STAR format? Keep up your posting, thanks!
Love this school, the best thing around!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
ReplyDeleteWhy is are these schools "the best thing around"
Because they cheat?
Because they give you an easy grade so you become a Turkish sympathizer?
Do explain.