In Turkey, the 2024–2025 school year began on 8 September. Schools of all orders and grades started demanding from parents all expenses for each student under the name of a “needs list.” Although the Ministry of National Education (MEB) has said that what is demanded under the name of “donations” and “needs lists” is against the law, school administrations have not abandoned the practice.
Sinan Gül, head of Eğitim-Sen (Education Union) Branch No. 7, spoke to ANF.
Gül said that the problems in schools have been continuing for a very long time and have many reasons: “As a long-standing covert tradition, during registration periods and the opening weeks of schools, donations of money under the name of ‘support for the school,’ as well as stationery materials (A4 paper, whiteboard markers, erasers, trash bins, cleaning supplies), are demanded and collected from parents.
In recent years, we have observed that these demands from school administrations have increased significantly. There are several reasons for this. The most important reason is the government’s problem of managing the field of education based on political concerns. Currently, education is being commercialized, turned into a paid service, and this is being legitimized in society. In line with this, the allowances that should provide for the basic needs of schools and improve the school environment are being increasingly restricted. As a result, school administrations are compelled to go to parents with more demands in order to meet schools’ basic needs.
Linked to this, because of inflation in recent years and the fact that the allowances for schools have not been increased at the same rate, the demands of school administrations have turned into larger sums. Knowing that it will be difficult to demand in-kind or cash contributions again later in the year, and that the same needs cannot be met at the same prices four months after schools open, school administrations keep their initial demands high.
Another reason for this increase is the erosion of ethics and basic rights caused by political policies implemented for a long time. The fact that society has forgotten, or been made to forget, that education is a fundamental public right, and thus does not raise an organized voice against these demands, while school administrations see no problem in making them, also plays a role.”
The government does not want this problem to be solved
Gül emphasized: “It is more accurate to answer starting from the last part of your question: does the government really want to stop this process? We see that instead of preventing it, the government practically supports these demands from parents.
Statements like ‘We will not allow money to be collected in schools in any way’ are nothing more than trying to look good in the eyes of parents, who are one of the stakeholders of schools. A parent who hears this on TV at home finds themselves making payments under the name of donations the next day at school. Another consequence of this is that it disrupts the peace between the education community and parents.”
Education is driven by neoliberal concerns, not public principles
Gül noted that education in Turkey is shaped by a neoliberal mindset: “What is bad, what is getting worse, is discussed in public opinion. That must be the nature of things. Especially in areas like education, health, and law, which directly affect society, declining quality or deliberate deterioration is always more sharply debated.
If your understanding of education is driven not by public principles but by neoliberal concerns, it deteriorates.
When you impose on school curricula a philosophy removed from science and practical skills, when you push teachers into a struggle for survival with low wages and force them to work in other jobs, when you devalue and demoralize them with mobbing and political rhetoric, when you make them live with the fear of losing their jobs, you seriously destroy their sense of belonging. This is the process we are living in now.
On the one hand, the education community has lost its sense of belonging; on the other hand, curricula in schools are being degraded and schools are pushed into economic and pedagogical deprivation. The result is a situation moving forward in an atmosphere of chaos.”
“Free, scientific education” is now a nostalgic slogan
Sinan Gül underlined that the problems in education cannot be solved with generic reactions, but require organized struggle: “Education is a public sphere. Therefore, it is necessary to internalize that free education is a constitutional right and to form a social reaction in this direction. This stands before us as a major problem.
Another problem is that teachers, who are the essential element of the profession, must reorganize the unionist understanding based in classrooms and make it part of a vital struggle.
For this, unions and the union movement must first develop the capacity to reach the local level, create practical reflexes, and strengthen the link with parents, the social leg we emphasized above. Approaching problems with generic reactions is not enough to solve them.
A broad base of solidarity, able to resolve local issues, but also engaging with universities, addressing the plight of substitute teachers, and standing in solidarity with private sector teachers—could bring effective intervention in this process. To conclude, under today’s conditions, the phrase ‘We want free, secular, scientific education’ has begun to turn into a nostalgic slogan.”