Bosnian, Albanian added to Turkish Education Ministry’s curriculum
ANKARA
Bosnian and Albanian have been added to the list of foreign languages available to be taught at secondary schools by the Turkish Education Ministry, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Feb. 23.The ministry added the two languages as electives of “Living Languages and Dialects” subject.
The ministry also announced that programs for two new foreign languages were accepted by the Board of Education and Discipline and that course books for the languages are now being written.
Academics from universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina will cooperate with Turkish specialists while preparing the books.
The protocol to teach Bosnian and Albanian was signed between the Education Ministry and Trakya University on October 2016.
Persian, Korean and Urdu were recently added to the list of foreign languages that will be offered by the Turkish Education Ministry.
A cabinet decision regarding languages in formal and non-formal educational institutions in Turkey was issued in the Official Gazette on Feb. 22.
Revisions to the country’s national curriculum sparked debate after the Education Ministry published on Jan. 13 a draft curriculum covering 51 compulsory classes taught in elementary, middle and high schools. The ministry also established a platform in which citizens could leave comments and make suggestions.
The program for the upcoming academic year, to begin in September 2017, caused particular controversy over the reduced profile of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in lesson materials, as well as the removal of the theory of evolution from biology classes.
