Türk Eğitim-Sen calls on MoNE for a new high school model: "New Crisis Without Healthy Consultation"

ANKARA - Talip Geylan, President of the Turkish Education and Training Union (Türk Eğitim-Sen), made important warnings about the new regulation models in the high school education system brought to the agenda by the Ministry of National Education (MEB) during a news program on CNN Türk on October 14, 2025. Geylan drew attention to the potential problems of models such as 3+1 and 2+2 and the need to strengthen vocational education in particular.

MEB has No Draft: "We don't know what to argue about!"

General President Geylan stated that a radical change in the high school education system should first be shared with the public and emphasized the importance of a healthy consultation process:

"The Ministry of National Education has not shared any draft with the public. Therefore, it is unclear what we will discuss at this stage! As Türk Eğitim Sen, our main expectation is that the MoNE shares the new regulation with the public and that the new regulation is put into flesh and blood after a healthy consultation process with the active participation of experts, especially our faculty members working in education faculties."

Geylan reminded that the current discussions have been going on since the 4+4+4 system was introduced and especially the criticisms that the reduction of primary school education from five to four years is not pedagogically appropriate.

"Being a University Graduate is Not the Only Way to Get a Job"

Mentioning the unhealthy relationship between education and employment, Geylan drew attention to the problem of youth unemployment in the country and stated that the solution lies in strengthening vocational education. Geylan referred to research showing that 24% of young people in the 18-24 age group are neither in education nor in employment (NEET).

"The first step to solving this problem in our country is to strengthen vocational education. Currently, the ratio of vocational education to academic education at the secondary level is 26.4%. However, when the averages in the west are taken into account, the rate that should be 65-70%. Unless the perception that the only way to get a job is to be a university graduate is demolished, backlogs such as the 2 million 600 thousand students taking the YKS cannot be prevented."

Geylan described the low employment rate of 904 thousand students graduating from universities last year as "very painful" and noted that around 500 thousand graduates of education faculties and around 800 thousand graduates of economics and administrative sciences are unemployed.

Risks of New Models: Excess Norms and Girls' School Enrollment

Geylan emphasized that the potential problems of new high school models such as 3+1, 2+2 should be discussed very well. He said that one of the biggest risks of these models is the possibility of a significant number of teachers becoming surplus teachers. Geylan gave the example of the 4+4+4 transition in 2012, when 42,500 classroom teachers were surplus to norms, and stated that a good analysis should be made to avoid a similar situation.

Geylan's second important warning was about girls' schooling rate:

"Will the schooling rate of children in that age group be negatively affected? This is also a risk. In particular, I would like to underline that the schooling rate of our children in that age group, especially girls, should be maintained. Otherwise, new problems may arise."

Finally, Geylan stated that the main thing in education is guidance and that this guidance should be done by teachers, and concluded by calling for measures to be taken to increase the effectiveness of teachers in the education process and to protect their reputation.