Turkey to resume distance learning as of Nov. 20

ANKARA

Turkey is resuming its distance learning education system as of Nov. 20 until Jan. 4 of the next year, the country's national education minister announced Wednesday.


After the country's decision to impose partial curfews, Ziya Selcuk made a statement detailing implementation of distance education in line with the decision taken at a Presidential Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Selcuk stated that no in-person exams will be held until Dec. 31 and that the exams will be carried out according to the course of the pandemic.

The statement said no in-person education will be given in pre-schools, kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, high schools, special education schools, applied courses in vocational high schools and special education courses.

Selcuk emphasized that remote learning will continue through national broadcaster TRT's Education Information Network (EBA) channels and live courses, while all teachers can carry out live lessons through EBA.

He stated that 812 teachers who work in 112 different fields presented 1,653 video lessons to EBA for 18 million students in kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools and high schools.

He stated that lecture broadcasts will continue to be displayed on the screen three times a day to allow students to catch up on their lessons they have missed.


Selcuk reminded that 60,000 tablet computers sent by public institutions and organizations, local administrations, private sector organizations and civil initiatives are delivered to students in line with the distribution strategy based on the priority needs.

"We will deliver 30,000 tablets to our students within 10 days. The procurement process of 500,000 tablet computers that will be distributed is completed and we will have them delivered to our students by the end of the year," Selcuk said.

Selcuk stated that EBA had earned the title of the world's most visited education website with 9.1 billion clicks with more than 1,700 lessons and over 40,000 rich, reliable and interactive content.

Turkey had begun airing broadcast school lessons as of March 23 as part of distance learning measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

The country registered 4,215 more COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, with overall infection count now standing at 425,628 patients.

As many as 2,592 patients also recovered in the last day, pushing the tally to 361,655, while the death toll rose by 116 to hit 11,820.

*Writing by Dilara Hamit