Leave the statement and look at the problems: Problems in education are festering
The Ministry of National Education's 2025 Report revealed that problems in education have become gangrenous. The report, which shows that the expenditures of the Directorate General of Religious Education have increased 11-fold in five years, lists ‘dual education’ and ‘overcrowded classrooms’ among the shortcomings.
The report, which covers the activities and expenditures of the Ministry of National Education in 2025, reveals not only the expenditures from the education budget but also the problems experienced in the field of education.
It was seen that the problems in the field of education, which were preoccupied with artificial agendas, had become gangrenous during the 24 years of AKP governments.
The low number of appointments compared to the number of teachers who have not been appointed, the large amount of religious education expenditure and the physical capacity inadequacy of schools were reflected in the MEB report.
EXCESSIVE BUDGET FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
The MEB report once again revealed that the weight of religious education within the education system is increasing. It was found that the expenditures of the Directorate General of Religious Education for the 2020-2025 period have increased exponentially each year.
The expenditures of the directorate, which spent more than 16 of the 23 units within the MEB, including the Directorate General of Construction and Real Estate and the Directorate General of Support Services, during the 2020-2025 period were as follows:
•2020: 10 billion TL
•2021: 11 billion TL
•2022: 20 billion TL
•2023: 41 billion TL
•2024: 82 billion TL
•2025: 109 billion TL
LOW APPOINTMENT QUOTA
Despite a teacher shortage exceeding 100,000 as of 2026, the Ministry of National Education's low appointment quota was also highlighted in the activity report. It was stated that despite a teacher shortage exceeding 100,000, the Ministry only appointed 16,765 teachers in 2025.
RECORD RESOURCES FOR MAARİF
The report also shared the institutions and organisations that received assistance from the Ministry during the 2023-2025 period, along with the amounts of assistance provided. The Ministry of National Education, which transferred 1 billion 297 million TL to unions, institutions and organisations in 2021, 2 billion 342 million TL in 2022, and 3 billion 609 million 522 TL in 2023, increased this amount to 8 billion 358 million TL in 2025. The organisations that received funds from the education budget and the amounts transferred are as follows:
•Turkey Maarif Foundation: 6 billion TL
•Ahmet Yesevi University: 553 million TL
•Kyrgyzstan Turkey Manas University: 1 billion TL
THREATS TO EDUCATION
Under the heading ‘Assessment of institutional capability and capacity’ in the MEB report, findings that constitute an ‘admission of the tangled web of problems in education’ were recorded. The following findings were included in the ‘Threats to education’ section of the report:
•Dual education practices
•Differences in the number of students per classroom and teacher
•Artificial intelligence not being used to the desired level in the data system
•Insufficient implementation of service export practices in education
•Insufficient human resources in strategic areas (space technologies, artificial intelligence, cyber security, defence industry).
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Bildiriyi bırak sorunlara bak, published in BirGün newspaper on March 3, 2026.
