The new school year begins today in Turkey. Kurdish students will boycott the schools for a week in protest at the racist Turkish education system. In addition to the week-long boycott, there will be many activities to draw attention to the question of education in the mother tongue.  

Turkey is commencing the school year with a boycott by Kurdish students. The old racist Turkish education system, that is as old as the Republic, is continuing to be imposed on the Kurds by the AKP government. In opposition to this, Kurdish student initiatives will not go to school for a week in Turkey and Kurdistan. Alongside the boycott, Kurdish students will organise actions, activities and conferences to put the subject of mother tongue education on the agenda.

However, this week all eyes will be on the schools to be opened in Cizre, Amed and Gever that will provide education in the mother tongue, not on the boycott. The aim is for the schools opening in these three centres to be pilots and for them to be gradually introduced throughout Kurdistan.

The Ferzad Kemangar in Amed, the Bêrîvan in Cizre and the Dayîka Uveyş in Gever (Yüksekova), established jointly by Kurdî-Der, TZP Kurdî and Eğitim Sen, will have mass opening ceremonies. The three schools will commence educational activity despite the bans of the AKP, which has declared the schools to be illegal.

The Dibistana Seretayî a Ferzad Kemangar (Ferzad Kemangar Primary School) in the Bağlar district of Amed, will have its public opening at 11 am this morning.

All classes necessary for a child at primary school have been included in the syllabus of these three schools, while the text books have been printed in Kurdish. The primary school education is for 5 years, and for the middle school 4 years. Education will be provided in the Kurmanji and Dimilkî dialects spoken by the pupils, and in future years in addition to Turkish and English, in other languages according to the requests of the students. As well as 5 class teachers, volunteer teachers will give lessons in art, music and PE, while all needs of the students, including uniforms, will be provided by parents and the people.

The Dibistana Seretayî a Bêrîvan (Berivan Primary School) and  Dayîka Üveyş school in Gever will also have public opening ceremonies.

Boycott from primary schools to universities

Kurdî-Der President Sabahattin Gültekin issued a statement regarding the boycott and the opening of the schools, saying: "90 years of your assimilation policies have not worked and today we are here. We say to our people, from Monday we are boycotting the educational institutions of the state, from the primary schools to the universities, for 5 days."

Support from ESP

The Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) announced it was supporting the boycott, demanding the provision of mother tongue education, the abolishing of compulsory religious classes and an equal, scientific and democratic education system.