One thousand 202 project entries in total from across the country were received months ahead of the event. 160 of them qualified for the finals passing a jury of eminent names. The finalists will be ultimately judged by academics from the top five universities of the country. Top 25 projects will receive their awards at a ceremony this Thursday and represent Indonesia in international science olympiads.
Somalia has been struggling with civil war and drought for a long time, and Turkish schools have a special place in rebuilding the education system in the country, despite the fact that these schools were opened only two years ago. Nile Institutions have been active in Somalia for almost two years, but these institutions have achieved 22 medals in the international Olympics.
“Students, parents and our state are all very much pleased with these schools. We have a population of 170 million and the young generation constitutes a large part of it. So, we demand more of these schools. They are empowering the Nigerian education system as well. They are in demand. Their graduates are able to study at leading universities in Turkey. Affiliates of these schools are operating not only in my country but also around the world.”
Mr. Huseyin Hurmali, Vice-President of the JWF emphasized and explained how civil initiatives inspired by scholar Fethullah Gulen have been contributing to both durable peace and sustainable development in about 160 countries around the world. Schools, universities and other educational institutions have been providing high quality science and mathematics education and also contributing to peace through becoming entities of “social mediation” in the regions of conflict.
Ahmed Karani, Undersecretary to Education Minister at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), was among the visitors of the fair. Karani found the students’ projects successful and scintillating. He also commended the students for their high academic level and accentuated the significance of fairs in this nature
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made their remarks in response to a question at a joint news conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gül following a trilateral summit in Ankara that focused on security.
“Afghan children are offered high-quality education services. We are very happy about that,” Karzai said, while Sharif said the schools “are doing a perfect job.”
Gymnasium und Realschule Dialog, located in Koln, Germany, got the first place with its podcast project among hundreds of schools in the “Schools design the future” contest by Sparda Bank. The school was awarded €10 thousand as the top winner. The top 19 schools received their awards in a ceremony at Sparda Bank’s Köln Breslauer Platz location.
Underlining that Pakistan’s major problems result from a lack of adequate education, the former prime minister noted that the developed education system at Pakistan’s 23 Turkish schools could play a significant role in solving those problems in the country.
The first adverse effect is related to unemployment. The AKP did not keep its promise to provide jobs at public institutions to all the prep school teachers who are not hired by the new private schools. Only teachers with six years of experience will have the chance of being hired at public schools. Thus, tens of thousands of prep school teachers will definitely lose their jobs since only the large, well-established prep schools can take the financial risks of re-establishing themselves as a new private school.
Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has put forward an interpretation of Islam that advocates peace, democracy, secularism (in the sense of freedom of religion and conscience for all), science, education and a market economy, and who has supported interfaith dialogue and mutual understanding and respect for people of different ethnic and religious identities and lifestyles, has been the topic of much curiosity for native as well as foreign observers of Turkey.
After all, it is not difficult to understand that the reasons pushing so many people so far from home have been a love of service and a love of their own country. During the course of my travels, I also had the chance to meet a few of the teachers dedicated to their service and to teaching in these schools. Most of them had sacrificed some of their own opportunities so that they could simply contribute to the schools at which they are working.
The issue is important to Gulen’s followers, who teach about 400,000 of the 1.2 million prep school students. The schools offer additional training to students preparing for exams from elementary schools to universities.
Erdogan has so far removed thousands of police officers and prosecutors on suspected ties to Gulen’s movement, while pro-government media has targeted companies for alleged links to the cleric.
Pakistani minister also stressed the importance of education in terms of its role for the country’s future. “Education is one important thing for the country to move forward. In fact my duty is also to make things better in the field of education in Pakistan. We have a lot of good examples from Turkey and the way Turkey has progressed not only in economy and democracy…Turkey serves as a role model of Pakistan.”