Students to head back to school on Sept 17

ANKARA

Some 18 million children and more than a million teachers in Turkey will head back to school on Sept. 17 at the start of the new academic year.

The first semester will end on Jan.18, 2019 and the mid-term break will last until Feb. 1.

The second semester is scheduled to begin on Feb. 4 and end on June 14.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday issued a message wishing success to all teachers and students for the new academic year.

In the message Erdogan said Turkey was getting ready for historical changes in education, as the country embraced the new presidential system with the June 24 elections.
He also recalled the effort to provide equality in opportunities in education, adding that reforms would continue undeterred in the education sector.

The academic year in Turkey started on Sept. 10 for first, fifth and ninth graders seven days earlier than other students due to a scheme dubbed “adaptation week.”

The scheme is designed to make sure students in those three grades do not have problems adapting to their schools. 

The program also aims at easing anxiety among children, getting them acquainted with their prospective teachers and classmates.

The adaptation week scheme was first launched in the 2006-2007 academic year.

Last year, a total of 17.9 million students were enrolled in Turkey’s private and public schools while the number of teachers was a little over one million, up from 989,231 in the previous education year.