January 07, 2006 When ‘non-mandatory’ fees demanded by schools through parent-school associations did not meet required quotas, the school associations developed a genius idea for payment extraction. Those students whose families are able to pay the 25 YTL (around $18.00 US dollars) fee will proudly wear a stamp on their collars. This way the non […]
January 07, 2006
When ‘non-mandatory’ fees demanded by schools through parent-school associations did not meet required quotas, the school associations developed a genius idea for payment extraction. Those students whose families are able to pay the 25 YTL (around $18.00 US dollars) fee will proudly wear a stamp on their collars. This way the non paying parents and students will be embarrassed to pay the non-mandatory fee, making up for the cuts from education in the national budget due to privatization of education. Students in elementary schools were told the reason they were being tagged as well as their parents. Some teachers, as well as angry parents showed reaction to this discriminatory practice. The president of the Education Workers Union, Eğitim-Sen’s branch 2, Ziya Kayna said the students who did not carry “paid” tags on their collars were showing stress and did not want to go to schools.
The school principal involved in tagging students said the practice was not intended to force the parents to pay, but did not explain the reason behind the “paid” tags on the students.
Video of the news (in Turkish)
Displays interviews with outraged parents, elementary school children who say the ‘tags’ show kids who have paid their dues and the union representative explaining that embarrassed students resist going to school because they do not have the ‘paid’ tag on their collar.
