I assume that no one thinks the recent "private courses" conflict between the government and the Gülen movement has anything to do with students' rights, the quality of education, science, helping family budgets, service etc.

However, the question of "private courses" directly concerns the lives of millions of students/young people. We cannot just watch from on far and say: "Do your worst". This is not a quarrel that we can ignore.

Turkey is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which states: “Every child has the right to an education..... Primary education must be free for all children. The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all actions concerning children..... Governments must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents ...."

The government is trying to force the private courses to turn into "private education institutes" in order to restrict the influence of the Gülen movement. It wishes to bring them under the direct control of the Ministry of National Education. The thing that really concerns students is that exams will be in the schools themselves. As for the Gülen movement it wants the private courses to remain as "fee-charging educational establishments", and defends this position as "freedom of trade".

In this debate students and parents should stand up against both the AKP government, which is attacking the fundamental rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Gülen movement, and defend their fundamental rights.
The exam system which drives students to private courses, and to memorise answers to certain kinds of questions, serves to hamper them thinking analytically. In practice, 12 years of compulsory free education are being transformed into "12 years of compulsory fee-charging education"

Although all the problems relating to the content of education and its institutional structure cannot be resolved overnight, its democratisation, that is, its freeing from the AKP and the state, and removal from the market, i.e. the Gülen movement, can be accomplished. The first step is to free education from the authoritarian mono-type character, currently enforced by the AKP government and previously by the guardianship of the Chief of Staff. In order to do this it is necessary for basic educational services to be affiliated to local authorities. It is possible for every school to have its own budget, with allocations from a central budget, with democratic participation and administrators elected by staff. There is no pedagogic reson this should not be done.

Secondly, to replace examinations that measure knowledge with a programme of fundamental assessment. All educationalists are aware that this is a much more creative system.

Since following the introduction of such a system there would be no need for private courses they could be transformed into people's education centres on the payment of their value and advisory services could be provided without charge. In this way secure employment could also be found for all educators.

The resources necessary for this already exists. It is only the politics that is missing. Taxation of profits and interest and reductions to the minimum of unproductive public spending (military, police and bureaucracy), would provide the spending needed for society, with urban and regional planning, international solidarity and peaceful foreign policy being implemented in a combined way.

There is of course no need to add that in order for this to happen it will be necessary to break free from the domination of both the AKP and the Gülen movement!