Prof. Dr. Cihad Demirli, Chairman of the Board of Education and Discipline, said that the new curriculum will be introduced gradually in all grades at the end of 4 years, that the process is dynamic and that there will definitely be new updates during this period.
Prof. Dr. Cihad Demirli, Chairman of the Board of Education and Discipline, made a statement to DHA regarding the new curriculum system. Demirli stated that international reports and global scale assessment and evaluation studies were examined for the need to change the curriculum and said, “It has been determined that the curriculum in our country and especially the content in some courses is dense and reports have been presented to us. In this context, in the evaluations we made together with the general directorates, we made an effort to reflect the simplification in our programs by following the studies in developed countries together with our contemporaries. This is not only a simplification, but also brought about a change in approach. Our programs will now be taught with a skill-based approach. This will pave the way for our children to design the necessary skills in a way that will meet their needs and meet the new needs of society and the world.”
‘67,284 OPINIONS RECEIVED, THIS IS A DYNAMIC PROCESS’
President Demirli said that the process of giving opinions during the preparation of the new curriculum dates back to 2013 and said, “Since the national education quality framework, monitoring and evaluation studies have been ongoing. The Ministry of National Education’s acquis on this issue is quite extensive. When we included the relevant general directorates and the Presidency of the Board of Education and Instruction in these studies, there were many collaborations. When we look at academics, national education experts, teachers, parents and all the other monitoring in the process, we can express these studies as the basis for the development of this program. In this context, we have tried to reflect the approaches revealed by these reports in our new curriculum. Many non-governmental organizations, stakeholders in education, universities, these were presented to us in the form of official reports, and at the same time, our citizens themselves directly presented their individual opinions to us. We received 67,284 opinions, we sorted them instantly every day and shared them with the relevant general directorates. We shared them with our own experts and commissions. We made their evaluations daily. Even during the suspension process, we did not interrupt these evaluation meetings and our work on reflecting them in the programs.”
‘MONITORING AND EVALUATION CONTINUES’
Stating that the consultation process was sufficient for the experts on the subject, President Demirli said, “Ultimately, when the experts on the subject examined those documents, they could easily follow and see the points and changes they would focus on. The discussion about the duration can always be on our agenda. Plus this monitoring and evaluation is ongoing. The Board of Education will continue to monitor these programs when they are implemented. The programs departments of the relevant general directorates will continue to monitor. This is a dynamic process, this updating process is a continuous process, it is not something new and does not belong to today.”
Noting that with the new curriculum, a unique and skill-based approach has been adopted, President Demirli stated that they aim for students to use what they have learned for the good of humanity, especially national and spiritual values, as virtuous people while putting their skills into practice. President Demirli emphasized that the most important innovation brought by the curriculum is a ‘school-based’ planning and said, “Differentiation that takes into account the individual characteristics of students has come to the fore. From now on, our teachers will be able to observe the individual characteristics of the students even better and will be able to support or enrich the curriculum with differentiation accordingly. This individual freedom is extremely important for us.”
‘FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES CONTINUE’
Stating that there are no studies on foreign language in the new curriculum system yet, Demirli said, “The proposals we have received at the moment cover 26 subjects. There is no work on foreign language or English yet. However, the relevant general directorates, here the general directorate of basic education and the general directorate of secondary education are carrying out these works and making preparations. As soon as their preparations are completed, they will present them to us for evaluation. Most probably, we will have completed the work on those courses in the near future.”
Demirli stated that they have adopted a more up-to-date and contemporary approach in the new curriculum system and explained that students will be able to adapt to the current curriculum system faster in the fields of ‘artificial intelligence’, ‘national defense’ and ‘sports’. Demirli said of the new curriculum, “It addresses the development of the child in a multifaceted way. Therefore, at this point, we prioritize the development of the child and therefore the society in a peaceful way and in a way that will benefit humanity, taking into account the general goal and fundamental values.”
HOW THE GRADUAL TRANSITION WILL BE
Demirli also explained how the gradual transition will take place, saying, “Starting next year, when it is implemented in pre-school, primary school 1st grade, middle school 5th grade and high school 9th grade, monitoring studies will continue at the same time. This is already a regular part of the education system. Therefore, this process will be realized when we actively monitor the teacher reflections obtained here and made part of the programs. This program is not implemented in the whole education system, in all classes. After all, it is gradual. It will take a period of 4 years for this program to be fully integrated into the education system. The process is dynamic and there will definitely be updates during this period.”
WHY INTEGRAL WAS REMOVED FROM THE CURRICULUM
Referring to the criticisms of the new curriculum system, Demirli said the following, especially regarding the removal of the integral, which is the subject of the mathematics course, from the curriculum
“At this point, I would really like those who develop criticism to re-evaluate and read our programs with an eye. Integral is one of the very important subjects of mathematics. When you look at it as a field of science, it is an element that affects especially analytical thinking skills. However, there is also this aspect. In our programs, the integral is a subject that takes place in the second semester of the 12th grade. While simplifying the content, we took into account the following as the most basic characteristic; while simplifying the content, we looked at whether one subject was a precursor to another subject. When it comes to the subject of integral, we can say that it is not a precursor of another subject as of the 2nd semester of the 12th grade. At this point, when we compared the studies related to integral compared to limit derivative, when we discussed with field experts and academicians, we came to the conclusion that it would be more appropriate to give this subject to children who want to continue their science and mathematics-oriented engineering-oriented education at the undergraduate or associate degree level. And we have seen this in the scientific studies conducted in this regard. This also affects children’s perspective on mathematics. And we made this decision together with academics, mathematics educators, field experts and teachers. These discussions are not only for today, but also for the next four years with the gradual transition. When our students move on to higher education, at the associate degree or undergraduate level, if they are going to continue in engineering and mathematics and science, they will already learn the applications of this in their own fields. There is no simplification here that would constitute a ground for a big debate.”
