Turkey's national education ministry will subject teachers to a new performance system, through which educators will also be tested every four year on 'national and spiritual values' criteria

Turkey’s National Education Ministry has completed its new plan on teachers' performance system, according to which teachers will be subjected to an examination that will assess their 'national and spiritual values' every four year.

The performance system will also be used for the renewal of contracts of contracted teachers, the assignment of school principals, the additional service points, the foreign missions, the certificate of achievement and the promotion of teachers.

The overall performance points of teachers will consist of principal’s grade at the rate of 25 percent, student parents’ grade at 15, student’s grade at 15, group teachers’ grade at 20, other teachers’ grade at 15 and self-assessment grade at 10.

TEACHERS WILL BE ASSESSED ON ‘NATIONAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUES’

As the teachers will be tested by the education ministry every for year, they will be assessed with regards to ‘national and spiritual values’ at 10 percent while their knowledge on ‘the Turkish revolution history and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ will be assessed only at 5 percent.

The ministry plans to include the teachers with low grades in an in-service training. The draft regulation projects to assign or award the teachers according to such performance points.

While tens of thousands of teachers are employed as contracted teachers without any social security, this group of teachers will also be assessed in accordance to the new performance system for four years before their assignment for permanent assignment within the ministry.

AKP GOVT’S ‘SPIRITUAL VALUE’

The education ministry's new performance system based on 'national and spiritual values' shows the ruling Justice and Development Party’s intention to further transform the education system into an Islamic model.

Previously, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Boğaziçi University, for being non-national. "Boğaziçi University could not be successful in the international arena since it did not rely on the values of the homeland and nation," he said in a speech at a meeting of a Boğaziçi University association. However, Boğaziçi is Turkey’s top university and among the highest ranks around the world.

The ruling AKP government has also changed school curriculum for the last 16 years in an attempt to Islamize the education with such ideas that a woman must obey her husband as well as the concept of "jihad" and dismiss the theory of evolution.

The government also obliged textbooks of various courses to include topics related to the coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in November 2017 that their goal was to bring up new generations who are loyal to 'national and spiritual values', adding that terror could be prevented only this way.

Moreover, thousands of teachers or candidate teachers have been subjected to a security investigation during the ongoing state of emergency that was declared upon the failed coup in July 2016.

Many educators' assignments were cancelled as a result of investigations although they had passed the exams and been appointed as teachers. Many others were eliminated without any reason, showing that the government can avoid assigning anti-government people as "unwanted" citizens.