Turkish universities will teach the upcoming spring semester remotely. The student dormitories run by the government will be used to accommodate earthquake victims. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced Saturday according to local media.
“We will use the dormitories of all our universities belonging to the KYK (the state organization that founds dormitories) for victims. Universities will provide distance education and hopefully we can use the dormitories as boarding houses,” Erdogan said.
The government has received a lot of criticism with this decision. Critics say the decision points to the government’s poor planning for a disaster like the current one. Academics and students are demanding that hotels and vacant homes be used as boarding houses first. They accuse government officials of taking it for granted to be the first to target education.
‘Don’t you dare close more schools’
The main opposition leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kiliçdaroglu on Twitter strongly oppose the decision. “Don’t you dare close the schools, don’t do it. The mental health of our youth has suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic. Let’s not do more damage to our young people. We only have our youth left.”
On Sunday, Kiliçdaroglu reported waiting for a reconsideration of the decision to keep university education at a distance. So he suggested to make available all locations of his party, including the headquarters and single-family homes. “Let’s not touch the young people this time, don’t make them pay for the disaster.”
This article is also part of our live blog: Turkish universities are going to teach remotely to accommodate homeless people on campuses
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