1002 more Islamic İmam-Hatip schools opened in Turkey last year

Turkey’s Ministry of National Education has released a statistical report on academic year of 2016-2017.

Part of the data shared in the report reflected on the ruling AKP’s (Justice and Development Party) reactionary and capitalist motives, as BirGün reporter Çağlar Ballıktaş reported.

The significant growth in number of Islamic vocational schools, named as İmam-Hatip Schools, caught attention.

75,767 more students enrolled in İmam-Hatip middle and high schools last year, increasing the total number of students in these schools to 1 million 155 thousand 932.

The number of new schools opened as İmam-Hatip also increased dramatically. While there were 3,110 İmam-Hatip schools nation-wide at the beginning of the school year in 2015, this number increased to 4,112 as 1,002 new İmam-Hatip schools were opened.

On the other hand, the Ministry has overlooked the elementary schools, which currently cannot be turned into İmam-Hatips. The number of public elementary schools decreased continuously throughout the terms of AKP governments, while private schools at this level increased.

AKP’s primary investment in İmam-Hatip schools was also visible in data regarding ratios of students per class and teachers per students. Last year, the average number of students per class in İmam-Hatip high schools was 16.8 and the students per teacher were 12.3. In other high schools, such as the schools with concentration on natural and social sciences and foreign language, there were an average of 26,3 students per classroom and 15 students per teacher.

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/bir-yilda-1002-imam-hatip-178908.html