by Uzay Bulut • October 27, 2018 at 5:00 am
After the minimum age for Quran studies in Turkey was abolished in 2011, a project named "Pre-school religious education through Koran classes" was piloted in ten cities across the country in 2013. The project teaches "basic Islamic information" to children between the ages of four and six. Since then, the number of "pre-school Koran classes" has continued to rise.
The number of religious "imam hatip schools" has climbed from 450 in 2002 to 4,112 in 2017. Meanwhile, there are only 302 specialized science high schools in the country.
"There are religious organizations... [that] pump their own ideologies on children through classes in 'values education' ... We know that they use one-sided language that demonizes those who are different. We observe that the students who are exposed to such curricula consider those who think differently to be their 'enemies.'... When one looks at countries such as Afghanistan, where similar steps were taken, one can see where this process leads to." — İlknur Bahadır Kaya, chairman of the Parents' Association.
Pictured: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits a religious "imam hatip" high school, on April 2, 2018. (Image source: aHBR video screenshot)
Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) is set to receive an additional two billion liras (around $350 million), boosting its budget from last year's 8.3 billion liras ($1.5 billion) to 10.4 billion ($1.8 billion) liras for 2019, according to the newspaper Cumhuriyet. This increase in budget surpasses that of 29 other major state institutions, including the ministries of the interior and foreign affairs.
The Diyanet, the state body regulating the role of Islam in Turkey, apparently has, as one of its main missions, transforming the country's education system. It is now fully engaged in shaping school curricula.
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