Talks on Education

In the global competitive environment, countries attach great importance to the improvement of their education systems, and try to increase the quality of their human capital. Spreading quality education to all segments of society is the desired policy goal in almost all countries, but is not fully achieved in most countries. Compared to other countries, our education system is enormous in scale, and there have been significant improvements in basic, secondary and higher education in recent years. This improvement trend can be seen in surveys of international student success, especially in primary and secondary education.

The book contains 26 interviews conducted by the author during his term as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of National Education. The interviews focus mainly on the developments witnessed in vocational and technical education, special education and guidance, assessment and evaluation, as well as in examination services, and since the interviews are listed by publication date, they provide the opportunity to follow developments chronologically. The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 forced education systems around the world to re-evaluate their situation, leading to significant changes. The book tells the story of how the Turkish National Education system contributed to the national mobilization efforts against COVID-19, and especially the contributions of its vocational-technical education infrastructure, under the challenging global conditions. You will clearly see how our education army, working shoulder to shoulder with the army of healthcare workers, has been involved in all processes. The interviews shed illuminate a path for future studies by noting the targets of the paradigm change in vocational education and of the initiation of R&D studies at the earliest age to carry Turkey forward in the 21st century, and the decisive steps taken to this end.

Mahmut Özer graduated from the Electronics and Communication Engineering Department of İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ) in 1992. Özer served as the Rector of Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University from 28 November, 2010 to 4 October, 2017 and as the Chairman of the Inter-University Board (UAK) from 1 August, 2015 to 1 August, 2016. He has served as a member and as the deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Professional Competency Authority (MYK), as the representative of the Higher Education Council (YÖK). He served as the Chairman of the Student Selection and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) between 4 October, 2017 and 8 August, 2018. Özer has been serving as the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of National Education since 8 August, 2018.

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