PUERTA DE ORIENTE Violence in Turkish schools reflects a social and economic crisis

Milan () – The murder of the principal of an Istanbul school at the hands of a student seeking “revenge” for a previous expulsion order has revived attention on violence in classrooms in Turkey and on the education system in general. A terrible event that has shaken consciences. And that has led several teachers’ unions to call a strike day, because it is not “an isolated incident”, but the result of a long policy of “discrediting” the teaching profession. However, it is “important to note that this is the tip of the iceberg, a crisis in the educational system, which is added to strong social tensions,” Father Claudio Monge, a Dominican, who has been in the economic capital for a long time, explains to . and commercial of the country, where he is parish priest of the church of Saints Peter and Paul. “These attacks – he continues – are often instigated and originated not so much by the students, but rather by family members, and it is reductive to link the issue of violence solely to the school environment.”

Director murdered

The shooting murder, on May 7, of 74-year-old İbrahim Oktugan, principal of a public school, is a topic on which the media and commentators are stirring up a controversy that goes beyond the news, fueling debates about security in institutions. The shooter was a student who acted in revenge because he had been expelled for disciplinary reasons. The man died in the hospital due to his serious injuries, while the young man – a minor identified with the initials YK, from an Iraqi immigrant family – was detained by the police when he tried to escape. He is now locked up in a juvenile prison awaiting trial for premeditated murder.

The story has sparked controversy on several fronts: from the media narrative to the connection with the world of immigration, which further fuels the waves of xenophobia, to the issue of school violence, which has long seemed structural. Episodes of bullying against classmates and teachers are increasingly frequent and occur as early as age six: according to the Education Monitoring 2020 study, one in three children has suffered attacks in the classroom, with 14% more among girls. girls. Along with this is the issue of immigration, although there is no more significant incidence among those coming from abroad also because, recently, a teacher was attacked by a (Turkish) student armed with a knife. And a pregnant teacher was attacked by the parents of a student, also Turkish, without the press placing special emphasis on her nationality, unlike the murder of the director.

Organizations in the school sector, even those traditionally linked to the government and the majority parties, expressed their discontent with a day of strike. However, violence is a problem that not only affects education and that has been growing – and worsening – in the last 10 years also due to the discriminatory policies carried out by the executive, starting with gender inequality. Added to this is the clash between social classes and ethnic groups, distrust in justice and a general increase in anger and discontent, combined with mutual intolerance.

A “social issue”

What unions and authorized experts call a “school emergency” is, in reality, part of a broader problem that encompasses Turkish education, society and politics over the last two decades, “in which there has been a depowering of the education system”. “In Turkey,” explains Father Monge, “compulsory schooling is in force from the ages of six to 17, the primary school enrollment rate [según las estadísticas oficiales] is around 94%, which drops to 91% in the case of a first and partial dropout with secondary school and remains with higher education. “The problem,” he continues, “is linked to a change in the very soul of the nation. , the violence is a reflection of social tensions due to a dramatic economic crisis and significant cuts in education funding.” The Government had promised “policies to protect children, to remove them from child labor, and compulsory schooling up to the age of 17 was in this direction, but the significant setback in family and social policies” has not been able to stop the violent drift. “The number of children between 15 and 17 years old who work on the street has increased by 110,000 compared to 2011,” emphasizes the cleric, director of the DoSt-I (Dominican Study Institute) study center in Istanbul and since 2014 advisor to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, “and the rate of increase in the number of child workers, which reaches 620 thousand, is 20%.” At the same time, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security has seen its budget to “combat child labor” reduced from around €1.2 million in 2023 to just over €825,000 this year. ‘More money to the arms industry [como informamos en este pasado artículo]also due to the flying effect of the war in Ukraine’.

Then there is the issue of school curricula, which in 22 years of Akp (President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party) rule have undergone four revisions, the latest approved recently. “In two decades there have been significant changes,” explains Father Monge, “linked to a moral-religious vision of life and society.” About 35% of the subject has been cut from the new curriculum, with the theory of evolution limited to secondary biology, and creationism funded by some Protestant Christian denominations in the United States.” They go on to complain about the lack of civic education, at the expense of a “moralization of behavior for religious reasons that leads to considering the ideal student not in terms of their intellectual preparation, but in terms of moral dictates of Islamic inspiration. Added to this is the increase in schools.” religious (imam hatip), with the support of the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), among the few “that have benefited from a constant increase in funding.” In Istanbul alone, an estimated 10,000 children have been diverted from education. public to illegal religiously inspired schools. We should not,” he explains, “think of Taliban-style indoctrination, but rather of a weakening of the critical capacity” functional to a more maneuverable future electorate.

Education at the service of power

The strong government intervention on the independence of Turkish universities and the tight control over the rectorates, after the authoritarian measures after the failed coup d’état of 2016, have caused a true “brain drain abroad.” The battles for public education for men and women led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern presidential Turkey, who “had made it for decades a model at the vanguard of the Islamic world,” seem distant. All of these are elements at play, the Dominican emphasizes, “but we must pay attention to the overall picture and understand that violence in schools is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Depressing education, not supporting the future of young generations by blocking their entry into the world of work are issues linked to the serious economic crisis, also a consequence of clientelistic policies that have increased corruption. “A nemesis,” comments Father Monge, “because this had been precisely one of the issues that had driven Erdogan’s rise. But corruption remains widespread and endemic, “laid bare by the devastation caused by the earthquake in February 2023, with the collapse of entire, luxurious and newly built buildings”, whose contracts had been awarded to companies and personalities linked to the highest echelons of power.

So many signs that perhaps indicate the beginning of the president’s downward parable, despite his confirmed activism in foreign policy. “In the last presidential elections he won, but he did not triumph,” recalls the clergyman. “And the recent vote for the administrative elections confirmed a general defeat of the Akp in the main cities of the country, as well as in Izmir, a traditional fiefdom of the opposition, and with the confirmation of the outgoing mayors of Ankara and, above all, Istanbul” . The future of Turkey is at stake in the country’s economic and cultural capital, also because Erdogan himself has always used the vote in his hometown as a referendum on his person. “In this perspective – he explains – the figure of the current mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu emerges, with a style opposite to the president not only in his message and content, but also in his calm tones that break with the populist approach. Even in the judicial cases opened against him “, he concludes, “he has never frontally attacked his political adversaries or the judiciary.”

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