AK Party, MHP agree on Quran elective courses in Turkish schools
The Parliament completed debating eight articles of the bill amid heated discussions.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) agreed on elective courses covering the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran during a debate of the compulsory education bill in Parliament.
Parliament began debating the articles of the 27-article compulsory education bill, seeking to increase the duration of compulsory education from eight years to 12, on Wednesday afternoon. The Parliament completed debating eight articles of the bill amid heated discussions.
Although the opposition party, the MHP, is against some parts of the bill, it agreed with the AK Party, which prepared the bill, on the issue of elective courses.
The MHP submitted a proposal to the bill which states that the Quran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad should be taught in school as elective courses. Having submitted a similar proposal before, the AK Party supported the MHP in its proposal during the debates.
Speaking to Cihan, AK Party parliamentary group chairman Mahir Ünal said the bill already included some regulations about the elective courses, but with its proposal, the MHP requested to include the Quran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the bill as elective courses, which the AK Party supports.
Oktay Vural, the MHP parliamentary group chairman, told Cihan that the MHP finds the support of the AK Party for their proposal positive but added that it did not mean the MHP supported the bill in its entirety, as there are a number of points the MHP opposes.
Stating that it is not exactly clear why the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) is opposing the bill, Vural added that the MHP support the dividing of the duration of compulsory education into three levels -- four years of primary school, four years of middle school and another four years devoted to high school -- and that they therefore disagree with the CHP, which harshly opposes the division.
"Protests"
While Parliament continues to debate the articles of the bill, nongovernmental organizations staged protests against the bill on Thursday. About 30 nongovernmental organizations gathered in front of the Parliament building in protest of the new bill. Speaking as a representative for the organizations, Education and Science Employees Union (Eğitim-İş
President Veli Demir said: “With the new education system, formulated as 4+4+4, the government is trying to separate the Turkish education system from secularism and science. The government plans to install a retrogressive education system in Turkey with the new bill.”
The Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) is another nongovernmental organization protesting the new bill. KESK members, who came from various cities to Ankara for the demonstrations against the bill, gathered in Ankara's streets to protest the debates on the bill. The KESK members began to march towards Parliament but were met with police resistance. The police did not let them march to Parliament, leading to clashes between KESK members and the police. Police used water cannons and teargas in order to disperse the demonstrators.
KESK members made a statement to the press early on Thursday in which KESK Chairman Lami Özgen said they would not give up fighting against the new bill and added that they had requested to take part in discussions over the bill.
Cihan
