The Presidential Decree on the Measures Taken in the Field of Education under the State of Emergency has been published in the Official Gazette.

 

According to the Presidential Decree, citizens affected by the earthquake in the provinces where a state of emergency was declared will be provided with free meals, accommodation, cleaning and other services provided by the official schools and institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education and revolving fund managements. These expenses will be met from the budget of the Ministry of National Education.

 

For private education institutions located in provinces where a state of emergency has been declared, the periods specified in first paragraph of the Article 7 of the Private Education Institutions Law No. 5580 dated February 8, 2007, will be suspended for three months as of February 6, 2023, after the entry of this Presidential Decree into force. These periods will start to run from the day following the end of the suspension period.

 

Administrative fine will not be applied to the private education institutions which are closed in the provinces where the state of emergency was declared in case they cannot deliver all the books, files and other documents related to the administrators, teachers and students as well as the seals specified in the fifth paragraph of Article 7 of the Law No. 5580.

 

Regarding teachers' houses and evening art schools whose activities have been temporarily or permanently suspended due to the destruction or damage of the building  located in the provinces where the state of emergency was declared, resources can be transferred to these institutions from the budget of the Ministry of National Education for three months, in case the operating budget is insufficient to pay the wages or the compensation due to the termination of the employment contract of the workers employed within the scope of the Labor Law No. 4857.

 

Within the scope of the Law on Free Boarding Education or Scholarship Students in Primary and Secondary Education and Social Assistance to be provided to them, in the provinces where the state of emergency declared, in case they are placed in school hostels as free boarding or transferred to private education institutions in their current province or another province, the scholarships of the students will not be cut until the end of the 2023 academic year.

 

Preschool, primary and secondary school students whose parents or guardian have lost their lives due to the earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, will be given monthly education support, regardless of their placement as free boarding, until the end of the 2022-2023 academic year in accordance with the amount of scholarship paid to students determined by the Law No. 2684. Students will be required to continue formal education in order to benefit from education support.

 

Stating that they will always continue to stand by children regarding their education, Minister of National Education Özer emphasized that they will offer all kinds of opportunities to ensure that students have access to education. Expressing that they will continue to work to heal the wounds of the earthquake, Özer said that they work heartily to raise the children who are safeguards of the future and entrusted by the citizens who lost their lives.