The Minister of National Education, Yusuf Tekin, spoke at the opening ceremony of the academic year at Atatürk University.

Minister of National Education Prof. Dr. Yusuf Tekin stated that the Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Model is not a completed or finished work, but a dynamic transformation process aimed at the content of education, saying, “The new Maarif Model supports an education system blended with academic, social, and emotional skills and national values, while generally placing technology at the center of this process.”

Minister of National Education Prof. Dr. Yusuf Tekin attended the opening ceremony of the 2024-2025 Academic Year at Atatürk University and delivered the first lecture of the academic year.

The ceremony held at the 15 July National Will Hall was attended by Minister Tekin, Erzurum Governor Mustafa Çiftçi, Metropolitan Mayor Mehmet Sekmen, Atatürk University Rector Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hacımüftüoğlu, AK Party Provincial Chairman İbrahim Küçükoğlu, MHP Provincial Chairman Adem Yurdagül, academics, and students.

Atatürk University is among the world’s leading educational institutions

Wishing that the new academic year will be beneficial and lead to a healthy and successful education process, Minister Tekin said, “I am proud to witness that Atatürk University, established in 1957, has transformed into one of the prominent educational institutions in both our country and the world over the years. I wholeheartedly congratulate everyone who has contributed to this process from the past to the present. The fact that this success story has emerged in Erzurum, and that it stands out as a brand value of my beautiful homeland, of which I have always been proud to be a part, brings me additional joy.”

Minister Tekin explained that Atatürk University, established with the ideal of creating a higher education and cultural center in the Eastern provinces of our Republic, has gained a respected scientific institution identity recognized and accepted on a universal scale through the academic, intellectual, social, and cultural knowledge it has produced since its establishment. “In addition to its qualified contributions to our country’s skilled human resources through its graduates, it has also pioneered the establishment of many universities in Anatolia with its rich academic staff, institutional culture, and experience. As of today, it hosts hundreds of thousands of domestic and international students, continuing its higher education activities both in Turkey and around the world with the Open Education Faculty, which started operations in 2010 within the university.

All this data clearly shows that Atatürk University has carried out a mission that transcends the borders of Erzurum and the country on an international scale with its performance exhibited at both institutional and theoretical levels,” he said.

“The field of education is, by its nature, a dynamic field”

Prof. Dr. Tekin noted that the mission forming the purpose of universities centers on the mind and science, which represent the highest manifestation of human-specific abilities, and consists of our ancient and strong civilization that is connected to its essence and respectful of one another, stating, “In order to have a say in the world of tomorrow, we need to revive these values in the strongest way possible. This indicates a historical responsibility that should be met, especially in the context of Atatürk University and our other universities.

I am talking about a responsibility that requires us to pursue new definitions and searches with a collective consciousness that does not easily yield to the general trends and assumptions of the current time, but rather aims to surpass, change, and even challenge them.

The phenomenon of education undoubtedly constitutes the most important pillar of our responsibility. We need to revisit the phenomenon of education with an inclusive perspective that incorporates the universality of the scientific and the nationality of the cultural. I would like to emphasize that this necessity corresponds not only to a historical responsibility but also to an urgent need.

In today’s world, where education systems are constantly changing and research opportunities have developed more than ever, we face the obligation to construct a new language and perspective based on a unique and free viewpoint. The field of education is, by its nature, a dynamic field. Due to this dynamism, it foresees a continuous change. Scientific, pedagogical, and technological developments, evolving and transforming social needs, and the diversities in individual demands—all of these necessitate change in education, steering us to constantly seek better. If you do not respond to the demands for change in this field, you become stagnant and miss the age you are in. As expressed in one of our proverbs, ‘still water becomes murky.’ We can neither allow our country to stagnate nor permit our education system to become polluted.

Until recently, the transformation efforts in the field of education in our country have not been conducted from a perspective focused on the essence of the issue or, more accurately, the ‘problem.’ These efforts, which are primarily motivated by contextual demands and needs, have remained as formal interventions directed towards the field of education; they have not been established on a philosophical ground that encompasses sociological foundations, the realities of the country, and scientific and pedagogical principles. Therefore, the changes made have been narrow in effect and short-lived in terms of time. Some implementations have even been eliminated before the desired outcomes could be achieved through them.”

“We have developed our educational environments in a way that cannot be compared to the past in terms of human, physical, scientific, and technological infrastructure and will catch up with the standards of the contemporary world”

Prof. Dr. Tekin stated, “During the nearly quarter-century period that has been ongoing with the cumulative accumulation of the AK Party governments, we have tried to develop our education system in a way that produces more efficient results, under the leadership of our President, without repeating past mistakes. In fact, during this process, we have developed our educational environments in a way that cannot be compared to the past in terms of human, physical, scientific, and technological infrastructure and will catch up with the standards of the contemporary world.

However, we have not viewed education solely in this aspect, as a necessary investment area that will increase the material wealth of our country. We also define it as a dynamic and continuous learning process that will enable the revival of our cultural and social existence. We see the education process as a freedom process that will include all the conditions of being a ‘good person’ and ‘self-awareness,’ which constitutes the fundamental justification and ultimate goal of our existence on Earth. This is undoubtedly a requirement of our great and ancient civilization vision, which we adhere to and follow.

On the other hand, there is also a global consensus that education is a universal human right and that this right is also a pathway to access other human rights and a prerequisite for socio-economic development. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights constitutes the legal expression of this consensus that is valid at the universal level. There is a multifaceted relationship based on mutual interaction between education and democratic values. Education contributes to the internalization and development of democratic values on one hand, while on the other, it is influenced by democratic culture, gaining a more pluralistic and inclusive nature in terms of content and methodology. Advanced democracies are forms of governance that take every measure necessary for the development of their citizens’ free thinking abilities.

From this perspective, it can be said that the field of education is among the areas that should be organized for the development of individuals’ free thinking abilities. Indeed, when examining the education systems of countries governed by advanced democracy, it is observed that these countries have abandoned the mission of ‘controlling knowledge and instilling certain thoughts in students’ that has remained in the 20th century and are now organized to enhance the capacities of students to think freely.

Therefore, democratic administrations are in a continuous search for pedagogical methods that are suitable for the individual skills and interests of students, their individual learning speeds, and character traits. This search, on one hand, ensures that all learning environments, especially schools, gain a democratic content, while on the other hand, it contributes to the formation of a student/citizen profile that is highly aware of democratic consciousness and integrated with contemporary values. This also shows that education should not be limited to schools today and that in fact, all areas of life can be made functional in this direction.”

“In the future world, human free experiences will form the essence of education”

Tekin expressed that he believes the view that schools have completed their classical mission does not fully reflect today’s reality, continuing his explanation: “Yes, due to the effects of globalization and the developments experienced at the scientific and technical level, education has moved beyond being an occurrence confined to certain time periods and specific places. However, this situation does not possess a characteristic that is valid equally everywhere in the world. Especially in underdeveloped or developing countries, we can still say that the classical order primarily characterizes the fundamental nature of relationships in the field of education. Moreover, in today’s world, where intense migration movements occur due to wars or other reasons, the need for schools and their classical missions will continue to increase.

However, I do not deny the thought that we should set aside outdated methods abandoned by modern world states and enter into new methodological searches. In this search process, original and first-time used methods can be produced, or alternative educational methods like the Montessori approach can be preferred. I believe that in the age we are in, pedagogical methods that focus on the individual skills and interests of students, suitable for their individual learning speeds and character traits will increasingly gain popularity.”

Minister Tekin stated that the education of the future will be based on the importance of human and their free and rational experiences, saying, “In the future world, human free experiences will form the essence of education. In this context, those who view education as a ‘life experience’ and position students as active subjects of this process, organizing their futures accordingly, will be successful. However, the understanding that positions education as a passive or inactive part of the process that prepares students for life, rather than as a ‘life experience’ centered on humans and their life experiences, will lose.

In today’s economic, social, and technological developments, the understanding centered around students necessitates going a step further and emphasizes ‘student-driven’ learning. Indeed, we, as the Ministry of National Education, carry out the changes we make in curricula with this kind of motivation.

We also see the new curriculum work, which was implemented last month and named the Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Model, as a requirement and concrete product of this motivation. With this model, which is grounded in our national values and scientific developments, we aim to capture the spirit of the time in education in line with the understanding of ‘deep-rooted past, strong future.’

The Türkiye Yüzyılı Maarif Model, which we created with a holistic approach encompassing skill-right and development-based learning processes, as well as virtue-value-action frameworks, is not a completed or finished work but a dynamic transformation process aimed at the content of education. This transformation process is nourished by a rich content that is based on both the natural and inherent development of our youth and meets their pedagogical needs, and it is a living knowledge base that can be updated at every stage as necessary.

The new maarif model prepared by our ministry, with this perspective, supports an education system blended with academic, social, and emotional skills and national values, while placing technology at the center of this process. By integrating digital competencies with traditional values like Anatolian culture, we aim to equip students with the theoretical and practical skills required by the 21st century, while enhancing the role and value of technology in education without ignoring our moral and ethical responsibilities.

Thus, we aim to provide the content not as disconnected compartments of information but as a coherent whole in context, as it is in daily life. We are trying to establish an understanding that will allow students to approach events multidimensionally, just as they encounter problems in real life.

Of course, we are aware that planning and implementing such a teaching-learning process is quite a challenging endeavor. However, we know that for political, social, and economic development to take place, for scientific and technological advancements to be achieved, and for intellectual and artistic progress to occur, we must organize the field of education in a rational manner that aligns with the spirit of the times.”