DIYARBAKIR - Drawing attention to the importance of mother tongue, Eğitim Sen Diyarbakır Branch No. 1 Co-chairs Emine Akşahin and Zülküf Güneş said: "We are against the elective mother tongue but we support education in the mother tongue.

 

Elective courses to be taught in schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education (MEB) in the 2023-2024 academic year started on January 2 and ended on January 20. The discussions about giving the mother tongue as an elective course started again with the selection process. The fact that millions of Kurdish children whose mother tongues are Kurmanji and Zazaki dialects of Kurdish were "starting their education in Turkish" and being forced to choose their mother tongue with only a limited number of courses during a limited period of their education life, caused reactions. While the classes were not opened due to the appointment of 3 Kurdish teachers in the last term, due to the lack of "teachers" in the selection of Kurdish elective courses, educators state that they are against teaching the mother tongue as an elective course and that education should be in the mother tongue.

 

EDUCATION IN MOTHER TONGUE

 

Stating that the administrators guided parents and students to choose religious courses with the elective course preference process, Eğitim Sen No. 1 Branch Co-chair Zülküf Güneş said: "We advocated the mother tongue to be used throughout education and used it in the public arena, and that we are fighting for this. We are advocating the use of mother tongues as the official language. There are calls and demands for Kurdish to be the language of education because Kurdish is widely used in their region. The mother tongue of children in their region is Kurmanji and Zazaki dialects of Kurdish. Students already speak Kurdish in this region, so these languages should be seen as official and public education languages, not as elective courses. If an elective course is to be chosen, the children of peoples who do not know this language can choose these courses. Kurdish children living in Kurdistan should receive education in their mother tongue.

 

'ONLY 80 TEACHERS ARE AVAILABLE'

 

Mentioning that students are afraid of being criminalized in the choice of Kurdish elective courses due to the policies towards Kurdish, Güneş said: "Although Kurdish students chose Kurdish elective courses in many schools due to the administrators' reluctance to open classes in Kurdish, the lack of materials for learning, and the shortage of teachers, this course was not given. 10 years have passed since the legal arrangement regarding the introduction of Kurdish elective courses, more than 2,000 Kurdish teachers graduated, but only 120 teachers were appointed during this period. 40 of the appointed teachers changed their branches because this course was not given. Today, there are 80 instructors who will teach these courses throughout Turkey, which unfortunately is a demand, but there is not enough education staff to meet this demand."

 

'GOVERNMENT USES MOTHER TONGUE FOR ELECTIONS'

 

Pointing out that the government had previously used the Kurdish elective course as an election propaganda to reach the Kurdish voters and that there is an election ahead of us, Güneş said: “We have an election ahead of us and we have seen this in previous elections, the government wants to use it as an election propaganda. The fact that these courses began to be seen as elective courses in schools coincided with the period of the 'solution process' in which the current political power carried out a partially democratic process. Even the current requirement has not been fulfilled. Not enough teachers were appointed and not enough materials were developed. We have an election ahead of us and the government is using it as election propaganda. As we are against the imposition of the mother tongue as an elective course, we will stand against the use of it as election propaganda.”

 

Expressing that it is absurd to choose the mother tongue as an elective course, Güneş said: “We want a child who speaks Kurdish to see Kurdish as an elective course, there is a serious contradiction here. Just as we cannot make a French child choose French as an elective course today, we cannot accept that a child whose mother tongue is Kurdish, Armenian or Arabic chooses his mother tongue as an elective subject and receives education in this way. As educators, they will always be in the struggle of non-governmental organizations to make Kurdish the language of instruction and the official language."

 

‘A LANGUAGE WAS CREATED BY THE DOMINANT CULTURE’

 

Stating that millions of children are deprived of the right to receive education in their mother tongue every academic year, Eğitim Sen No. 1 Co-chairperson Emine Akşahin said: "Nearly 30 languages were spoken in Turkey during the founding years of the Republic. The founding philosophy of the Republic displaces assimilation. Due to the policies implemented by the powers built on the mind of the nation-state, based on only one language, one belief and one identity, different languages were melted in one pot and a language and an identity dominated by the dominant culture were created.”

 

EQUAL RIGHTS

 

Emphasizing that children who grew up with their mother tongue had to leave their mother tongue outside the door when they started school, Akşahin said: “For years, all languages other than Turkish have been ignored in Turkey. For years, all languages other than Turkish have been pushed out of society, banned, marginalized, humiliated, that is, we children have the right to receive education in their mother tongue, but in return, they are trying to engrave children's own mother tongue in their memory as a language in which their mother tongue is marginalized in concrete life. We want to prevent this. We want all people to have equal rights. We demand that Kurds, Laz and Armenians receive education in their own language.”

 

‘THE SOCIETY IS EXPLOITED’

 

Pointing to the problem faced by the student during the education process, Akşahin continued as follows: “You go to school at the age of 6 and your language is forbidden to you, you are demonized. You see that language is valid in education and the public sphere, and you can see that your own language is in the second, third or even fourth plan, and the language is statified. In this context, it is not only language that is exploited, but society itself. A society whose language is banned is already an exploited society. It is a society whose culture, history and memory are ignored. It is unacceptable that neither a culture nor a language is banned anywhere in the world in universal values.

 

FIGHTING FOR THE MOTHER TONGUE IN EVERY FIELD

 

Pointing to the ban on theaters and concerts in Kurdish recently, Akşahin said: "The Kurdish language is banned from time to time. Defending the right of people to receive education in their mother tongue is not only a problem of institutions, political parties and trade unions. All over the country, this is the problem of every democratic-minded person who looks at human values objectively and looks at universal values objectively. It is the problem of lawyers, healthcare professionals, professional organizations and non-governmental organizations. It is a common problem for all of us and the future of our children is at stake. Our children should not grow up by lovingly adopting their mother tongue. If this happens, social peace will be disrupted. We will continue to fight the mother tongue in every field.”