The 53rd award ceremony of TÜBİTAK Research Project Contest for High School Students was held with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer and Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank at the Presidential Complex. The contest aims at encouraging high school students to carry out scientific research and making contributions to scientific developments.

 

President Erdoğan mentioned the space program of Türkiye during the award ceremony and said that the Ministry of Industry and Technology and TÜBİTAK have been working on this project.

  

Stating that he was often asked if he ever feels tired, President Erdoğan said, "I get my energy from youth. I worked in an effort to support and pave the way for youth throughout my political life."

 

Erdoğan pointed out that coups in the history of the country had a destructive effect on education and mentioned barriers preventing vocational school graduates from enrolling in university programs and a headscarf ban in the past.

 

"We have been providing groundbreaking services and achieved projects in different branches varying from education to health, from justice to security and from transportation to energy in all parts of the country in the last 20 years. When we came to power, there were only 76 universities in the country and now there are 207 universities," said Erdoğan. 

 

Noting that his governments initiated historical transformations in every field of education, President Erdoğan stated that textbooks were among the biggest problems in the past.

 

President Erdoğan noted that his governments have been distributing free textbooks to students at the beginning of every school year since 2003 adding that the total number of textbooks distributed since then has reached 4 billion. He added that the Ministry of National Education started to distribute supplementary sources for students, too.

 

Erdoğan reminded that the number of books in school libraries increased from 28 million to 60 million and it is expected that this figure will reach 100 million by the end of this year.

   

President Erdoğan said that Türkiye will rise on the shoulders of youth; it will achieve its 2053 and 2071 visions as well as national technology campaign, the guarantee of political independence. He noted that they have decided to increase the number of technoparks from 5 to 92 within this framework.

 

"In the first quarter, Türkiye grew by 7,3 percent this year. Our export figures are breaking records every month and employment rates are improving. With Allah's permission, these figures will continue to improve with the support of our youth" said Erdoğan.  

 

Erdoğan reminded that he had announced that a Turkish citizen will go to space in 2023 as a part of a scientific mission and more than 5 million people have applied for this mission since then.

 

"There are some people who underestimate our space mission. Once these people were also underestimating and even mocking our goal to produce an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (ucav). We have our own UCAVs now," said Erdoğan.

  

Meanwhile, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer stated that barriers in education were lifted under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the priority of his Ministry is to raise students who adopt the values of their country and compete with their peers in the world.

 

"Science and Arts Centers (BİLSEMs) have supported students in improving their special skills and their active involvement in science, industry, technology and arts.  In 2021, there were 225 BİLSEMs and this figure reached 335 this year.  Our Ministry also works in an effort to teach our students intellectual and industrial property rights. Our BİLSEMs and vocational education institutions have registered 7,200 property rights in the first five months of 2022," Özer said.

 

He also reminded that the school year will end on June 17 adding that the Ministry has decided to organize summer schools for the first time in its history.  

 

This year, 38 thousand students applied to compete in the contest.

 

216 projects were elected to compete in the finals and they were exhibited in the Beştepe Exhibition Hall.

  

This year 12 projects were awarded in the contest.

 

Azra Demirkapılar and Aslı Ece Yılmaz from Balıkesir Şehit Prof. Dr İlhan Varank Science and Arts Center, Esat Küçükbekâr ve Muhammet Mustafa Yılmaz; from Trabzon Of Science High School, Nazlı Aksay from Adana Science and Arts Center and Lal Korkmaz from  İstanbul İstek Özel Kaşgarlı Mahmut Anatolia High School are among the winners of the contest.