07 March 2015 18:35

Minister of National Education Nabi Avcı in his speech during the mass groundbreaking and opening ceremonies in Gaziantep participated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stressed that education has an important share in these new openings and the Ministry of National Education has to thank those who supported and contributed to these efforts.

Minister Avcı said education had the biggest share in state investments during the rule of the AK Party governments and newly opened student dormitories in the city is the solid fact of this situation.

Noting that Gaziantep has a young population, Minister Avcı made the following statement regarding education investments in the city:

“Let me remind you about the long way we have covered. In 2002, there were 7 kindergartens in Gaziantep, we have made the openings of 47 new schools and total number of kindergartens rose to 54. Primary and secondary schools were united due to uninterrupted education system and there were 542 basic education schools in the city, this figure has reached 823. Imam Hatip secondary schools were closed during the February 28 process, today we have 29 Imam-Hatip secondary schools in the city. The number of science high schools which were 4 rose to 81. There were no social science high schools in the city but today there are two social science high schools in Gaziantep. There were no fine arts and sports high schools, today we have one. The number of Imam-Hatip high schools were 5, this figure rose to 5. There were 10 vocational high schools, today the city has 56 vocational high schools. There was no science and arts center, today we have one. There were 18 student dormitories and this figure reached 22.”

Noting that 9 thousand and 400 teachers were appointed at the beginning of 2002, Minister Avcı said, “19 thousand and 500 teachers were appointed at the beginning of this school year. 509 new teachers were appointed to the city in February and total number of teachers appointed to this city only during this year has exceeded 20 thousand. These facts reveal that the government has been undertaking its greatest investments in education, young people, children and students for the last decade.”