Turkey is moving to rebuild the basic dynamics of its education system. Education volunteers have gathered together in Istanbul to lay the groundwork for the "3-Year Program," which is considered as the beginning. In this framework, the "Conference on Finding" the Correct Turkish Education System was kicked off in Istanbul with the attendance of National Education Minister Ziya Selçuk.

Education volunteers from 21 different fields including science, art, law, media, ports, business, trade unions, and think tanks attended the conference which was geared toward the reshaping of the education system in Turkey based on common wisdom and contributions from diverse social segments and experts from various areas. The president of Yunus Emre Institute, Prof. Dr. Şeref Ateş, also attended the conference, held on Saturday, September 8, in Istanbul. National Education Minister Ziya Selçuk delivered a keynote speech.

National Education Minister Ziya Selçuk: "We have been looking for it since the Tanzimat and it is high time we should find it"

Speaking at the conference, organized in Hilton Bosphorus Hotel, Minister Selçuk indicated that he sees a good future for Turkey despite all the pessimism and deficiencies. "We believe that it is time for Turkey to crown so many successes so far attained with another success in education. There are heightened expectations. We call this meeting as the 'Conference on Finding'. We have not done it for the sake of doing something different. This nation has been looking for it since Katip Çelebi. It is high time we should find it. We have been looking for it since the Tanzimat era and it is time we should find it. What we have found is, in fact, what we are. Therefore, when we are able to establish relationship between finding and being, we will have settled the most of the matter. We are here to find it. At the same time, we are here to dispense with rote and imitation and move beyond to verification. We are here for investigating and questioning, and for the mind and the heart," he said.

National Education Minister Ziya Selçuk: "We have to raise hell on education"

Minister Selçuk pointed out that there is a high level of competition going on around the globe. "Some countries have geniuses and gifted people the number of whom is equal to our population. This competition is different. This mindset is unlike any other. There new science and technology is unusual. We have to raise hell on education. We have to raise hell beyond the need for doing something. The coming age is unique and unusual. The age of singularity where the digital fuses with the biological and the physical arrives. We have to get ready for this age. We have to do something for now, not only for future. Education is not preparing children for future, but waking them to now. If you cannot wake up to now, you cannot have a vision of future," he said.

Minister Selçuk stressed that the country should move away from common wisdom. "We have to break away with our habitual patterns. The common wisdom agreed by 18 out of 20 people is not the solution to our problem. Our problem is so huge that we need bright sparks. Common wisdom takes us to average wisdom for average problems. We need bright sparks since we are in big trouble. We have such a problem: 'We' do not want to be. If anyone says 'us', then he also says 'them'. We have to be all of us. We have to go beyond being us. If we can be all of us, then we will attain what unity within multiplicity means. In this sense, believe me, we are not running after a reform. We do not take any interest in the form either. We are interested in building or revival. We are looking to be transformed through regeneration. We are not after innovation," he said.

Minister Selçuk explained that for a plant to sprout again, its seed should decay first. "This is because the new sprouting will bring about the seed. There is no point in preserving a seed for a thousand years. It has to be dissolved in soil to sprout anew. If we try to preserve a barren seed, we actually realize that we are being poisoned by it. In this regard, we are here to say that every child has his/her curriculum inside. We are here so that the stale curricula that have nothing with daily life, but are promoted with a propagandist manner should be questioned. We are here to say "stop it" to those who bring the words education and compulsory side by side. We are here to say "you're being funny" to those who bring the words pedagogy and formation side by side. We are here to say "please, look at the sky" to those who restrict education with the needs of industries. We are here to talk about the sun which rises every day for billions of years without causing boredom in anyone. We are here to be the sun, to be the rain. Indeed, the sun sends its heat to all plants, all children indiscriminately. The rain does not refrain from giving water to certain people while giving it abundantly to others. If we can be like this, we will be entitled to use the word 'truth'. We are here for the energy coming out of the collision between the plus and the minus. We are here for non-polarized love, not for the plus or the minus," he said.

Minister Selçuk also stressed that certain concepts in the education system should be questioned. "Let us tell you a very simple word: break time. There is the lesson, and our diver is under water. He fells suffocated and goes up and above to breathe. Why should students need to have a break from a lesson? The first man who made this description must have been very smart. He must have been aware of what is done inside. Why are the insides of classroom doors extremely old, worn and broken? There is no distortion on their outsides. This is because the difference between the speed with which students exit the classroom and the one with which they enter. While working on these words, we have to set a realistic goal. We have to come up with a sound method. We have the power, willpower and science to this end. Without science, these two will be useless. Let us work together to make this country the center of the mind, science and the heart, and let us spill away the venom of what we have been preserving for a sprouting civilization. Let us love the very concept of children just as we love our children. Let us support our teachers so that our children can go for the free mind thanks to them. Let us burn down our strait jackets. Let us pray for the peace of soul of Cemil Meriç," he said.

The day-long conference was closed to the press following the keynote speech.