President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's spouse Emine Erdoğan, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer and Minister of Family and Social Services Derya Yanık attended the joint inauguration ceremony of 150 kindergartens in İstanbul.

 

Emine Erdoğan said that during her speech that raising a child is like an art and education of children should start at an early age in order to receive the best results.  

 

Experts stated that 70 percent of physical, emotional and social development of a person is completed between 0-6 years of his life.

 

Emine Erdoğan stated, "First 6 years determines the rest of human life. All parents dream that their children will complete their education. We know that children who go to kindergarten show a higher tendency to be more stable in their academic and business lives. Kindergarten provides equal opportunity in education. Kindergarten provides more positive impacts for disadvantaged families."

 

She stressed that early childhood education has always been the prior policy of the government adding that the number of children enrolled in preschool education which was 320 thousand in 2002 increased to 1 million and 800 thousand recently.

 

Erdoğan reminded that 11th Development Plan and 2022 Program included early childhood education to compulsory education and the Ministry of National Education had a plan to enroll every child to preschool education institutions at least for a year.

 

"Within this framework, the schooling rate among five year old children, which was 78 percent, will be increased to 100 percent until the end of this year. We are also aiming at improving schooling rates of 3 and 4 year old children," said Emine Erdoğan.

 

She stated that 30 thousand children will begin their education in the newly opened 150 kindergartens.

 

The Ministry set the goal to open a total of 3 thousand new kindergartens and 30 thousand new preschool classrooms by the end of this year. It is expected that 2 million and 100 children will enroll in these schools.

 

Meanwhile, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer thanked Emine Erdoğan for her support to their project.  He stated that the schooling rate increased in the country in all levels of education and barriers preventing children from enrolling in education institutions were lifted.

 

"In the 2000s, only 11 of 100 children were enrolled in preschool education. Today, preschool schooling rate exceeded 90 percent. Today, 453 thousand students with disabilities are going to special education schools are they are schooled at home or at hospital," reminded Minister Özer.

 

Minister Özer announced the new goal of the Ministry to open 100 new kindergartens every month.

 

"Preschool education does not only decrease success differences among schools, they also help children to improve their non-cognitive skills. Today, we are opening 150 kindergartens but we also completed the planning process of the remaining 2 thousand 850 kindergarten schools," said Özer.