The march launched from Istanbul to Ankara by teachers organized under the Private Sector Teachers’ Union, continues in defiance of poverty wages imposed by employers and insecure working conditions. These teachers are demanding a guaranteed minimum base salary and full professional rights.

Walking with four key demands: guaranteeing a base salary, ending fixed-term contracts, establishing a dedicated education and fine arts sector, and securing equal professional rights with their public-sector counterparts, the private sector teachers are expected to arrive at the Ministry of National Education in Ankara on July 1. The same demands previously led to a 52-day vigil in front of the ministry.

Burcu Çıra, one of the marching teachers who has been exposing and documenting violations in front of private tutoring centers during the walk, spoke to ANF.

Directly experiencing the consequences of poor working conditions

Private sector teachers like Burcu Çıra carry out the same duties as their colleagues in public schools, yet they are denied base salaries and professional rights.

Burcu Çıra, who has worked as a mathematics teacher in private high schools for ten years, is currently unemployed due to the imposition of a 12-month contract system. She said, “I am a teacher who directly experiences the consequences of these poor working conditions and is now faced with unemployment.”

I have been teaching for 10 years and my salary is 38,000 TL with no benefits

Burcu Çıra emphasized that the working conditions of private sector teachers are not separate from the broader reality faced by workers and laborers across Turkey. She said, “We work for extremely low wages. These wages range from the minimum wage up to around 35,000–40,000 TL, and this includes overtime and additional lesson hours. We are made to work on official holidays. These wages also include education-related expenses. I have been a mathematics teacher for ten years, yet at the institution I left, I was earning 38,000 TL. And that salary came with no additional benefits. We pay for our own transportation. The institution provides us with just one meal a day, and even that is presented as a favor.”

We are subjected to mobbing even when we ask to sit for five minutes

Burcu Çıra explained that mobbing is a constant part of their working life. She emphasized that even sitting down during lessons was not permitted and that teachers were expected to remain standing at all times. Çıra said, “When we say, ‘Let us sit for five minutes while students are writing or listening’, even that becomes a problem. Sometimes we just ask to sit for a few minutes, but we are subjected to mobbing for it. Because the school administrators constantly walk around and observe the classrooms. The rooms have glass walls, and if they see a teacher sitting, it causes discomfort for them. In their eyes, the teacher should always be active, always talking, always moving and standing. But this is far from realistic. For example, I teach mathematics, so I’m in class almost nonstop. I get no rest. During breaks, students always have questions and I try to help them. I don’t even have ten minutes to rest. Yet they say, ‘This is your job, you chose this,’ and force this upon us even though it’s not written into our contracts. In one institution I worked at in the past, they didn’t even provide chairs to prevent us from sitting. As teachers, we started a small protest and only by acting together were we able to get our chairs back. Still, they continued to pressure us not to sit down in every possible way.”

Fixed-term contracts rob us of summer pay and severance rights!

Burcu Çıra explained that teachers are employed under fixed-term contracts lasting 12 months, which offer no guarantee of continued employment once the contract expires. She pointed out that, due to this imposed system, she has had to work in eight different institutions over the past ten years. Çıra said, “Every year I start a new job at a different institution. Every year, I have to search for work again. Even though the contract is for 12 months, if the institution decides not to continue with me, they take away my summer salary and severance pay. In practice, the 12-month contract has no real protection, even though it is supposed to under the law. In course centers and rehabilitation institutions, teachers are illegally forced to sign 10-month contracts. The Ministry of National Education is fully aware of this, and although it clearly violates regulations, there is neither oversight nor penalty. As a result, they avoid paying severance, salaries for the summer months, and social security contributions.”

Teachers threatened with dismissal for using their legal right to leave

Burcu Çıra highlighted that although private sector teachers are subject to the labor law and entitled to certain rights under the teaching profession law, even their basic right to paid leave is denied.

Çıra noted that, by law, teachers are entitled to eight uninterrupted weeks of vacation, but institutions routinely violate this right. Çıra explained, “When we object, they respond by saying, ‘You’ll come in whenever I call you. Skip three days, and I’ll fire you.’ We are threatened with dismissal for simply trying to take the leave we are legally owed.”

A childhood dream…

Burcu Çıra shared that becoming a teacher had always been her childhood dream and emphasized that she and many others have long struggled with the hope of raising a generation that would benefit society.

Çıra said, “I always saw the teacher as a respected one, and through the strong bond we build with our students, whom we see as our own children, our goal is to raise a good generation, shaped by the light of science and equipped with the knowledge we pass on. This is the ideal we enter the profession with. But for example, when I was in high school, I never saw my teachers worried about making ends meet. That was simply not something I witnessed. Everything changed after 2014. Until 2014, there was a base salary law that protected us. That law stated that private sector teachers could not be paid less than their public school counterparts. It was a legal guarantee, and so we had more security. But Yusuf Tekin, who is now the Minister of National Education, was undersecretary at the time, and he worked hard to repeal that law. He also introduced the fixed-term contract system. With privatization and the rise of market competition, many private institutions opened. These institutions turned teachers into cheap labor. Salaries plummeted, unlawful 10-month contracts became widespread, arbitrary dismissals increased and all of this stripped us of our right to live and work with dignity.”

Everyone is lumped together under the mixed sector we’re assigned to!

Burcu Çıra noted that while it is technically possible for teachers in private institutions to unionize, the very existence of a union is what most terrifies school owners. As a result, there is strong resistance to teachers organizing, becoming aware of their rights, and demanding them.

Teachers who claim their rights end up reducing the profits of their employers, Burcu Çıra explained, which is why private sector teachers are placed under a mixed sector classification.

According to Burcu Çıra, this mixed sector currently includes approximately 4.5 million workers. She said, “We are currently categorized under the 10th occupational sector. This includes not only education and fine arts, but also office workers, shoe industry employees, doctors, supermarket staff, cashiers, warehouse workers, lawyers, and teachers. In short, people from dozens of completely unrelated professions are lumped together. We are demanding the establishment of a separate education and fine arts sector. With 4.5 million people in one group, passing the 1% union threshold becomes nearly impossible. We cannot sign collective bargaining agreements because the bar is so high. To pass the threshold, you need 45,001 members. Unless you are a yellow union in Turkey, this is almost impossible. That is why we want to leave the 10th sector and establish the Education and Fine Arts Sector.”

We have no patience left, we will not take a single step back!’

Burcu Çıra made it clear that this is not their first struggle for the right to live and work with dignity. She explained that they had previously held a vigil in Ankara and were promised solutions three times by the Ministry of National Education, yet none of those promises were ever kept. She emphasized that their current march to Ankara is being carried out with firm determination. Çıra said, “We will never stop trying. We are deeply committed. Marching from Istanbul to Ankara under this sun is not easy. Yes, we will get tired, but we are already exhausted all the time while working. It is not the physical fatigue that breaks us, it is the psychological violence, the humiliation, the degrading and devaluing treatment we endure that wears us down. We no longer want to be exhausted in this way, to be treated with such disrespect. Our most basic demand is simply to survive, we want to live. We, 25 teachers, represent 400,000 private sector educators. Until these conditions are secured, we will continue our struggle without taking even a single step back. We have no patience left. There is no turning back, only forward.”