A teacher as a shepherd

Literature teacher Halil Eren works in his village in the northern Kurdistan province of Bitlis as a shepherd, because he was not assigned.

In the new school year, many teachers in Turkey cannot take a job because they are being investigated or simply not assigned to a school. One of these teachers is Halil Eren from the village of Oneq near Tatvan district of Bitlis province.

Eren has completed a four-year teacher training but has not found a job. Therefore, he has returned to his village and now shepherds sheep and goats, as he did when he was a child.

"I was born in this village," he tells. "As children, we went to school in another village and outside of the school time we grazed the cattle. I never had the opportunity to receive other educational support. I prepared myself for the tests while sitting on the rocks while keeping sheep and goats."

Five years ago there was a need for literature teachers, he says. "The teaching profession in Turkey is like the black market. For a while something remains in demand and a few years later you realize that you have actually studied in vain. People are forbidden to dream, so to speak."

The entire education system in Turkey is designed for a competition that nobody can win, says Halil Eren: "Pastoral life, of course, has many good sides. It's not that I do not like it, but I've worked for years to have students and to have them love literature. Now I will continue to live in the village where I was born."