Press Centre 2004/06/01: Girls’ Education

Governors of 33 provinces support the Haydi Kızlar Okula! campaign

Ankara, 1 June 2004 -- Haydi Kızlar Okula! -- UNICEF and the Ministry of National Education’s (MONE) campaign to achieve gender parity in primary education -- enters the second phase with a declaration of support from the Governors of the thirty-three provinces where the campaign is currently active.

Declaration finalised at Ankara
by The Governors of 33 Provinces
in support of the Haydi Kızlar Okula! campaign
1st June, 2004

As governors of the 33 provinces who have signed below, we have decided to issue this declaration in the framework of the campaign by the Ministry of National Education (MONE) and UNICEF which aims to get girls to school. We have come together with the aim and the goals that our leader Atatürk showed us and with the ideal of equalling the civilised and educated levels of developed countries, and with the hope of creating a more developed and educated Turkey.

Item 42 in the Constitution of the Turkish Republic states that Nobody can take away a persons educational rights and further says that primary education is mandatory for both boys and girls.

• Thus, as representatives of the government and all of the official organisations in the provinces, we promise that we will, as we have done in the past, monitor schooling for girls, and with the Haydi Kızlar Okula! campaign we shall see to it that there will be no girls left out of school.
• Thus for us to be able to fulfill this difficult but honorable task:
• We shall hold meetings regularly before the beginning of the school year 2004-2005 to review our plans and get rid of all obstacles to getting the girls enrolled in school.
• We promise to support all the district meetings to ensure a succcessful school year.
• We will follow up with all the organisations in our provinces, work together with their local representatives, the imams, the teachers, volunteers and even organize house visits to those families who are not sending their girls to school, and to inform the media, and enlist their support.
• We will put all our efforts into supporting locally elected officials to pursue the issues further.
• We shall also help identify families who are unable to financially support their girls going to school and help them to receive financial aid from the Social Solidarity and Assistance Fund (SYDTF) to be able to send their girls to school.
• We shall also support the construction of new classes for girl students in schools, where those are already inadequate.
• We shall activate the local leaders and media to support the Haydi Kızlar Okula! campaign.
• We promise to follow-up progress in the campaign and share successful enrolment figures with the public.

Signed

The Governors of Adana, Adıyaman, Ağrı, Ankara, Ardahan, Aydın, Batman, Bingöl, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Edirne, Elaziğ, Erzincan, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Hakkari, Iğdır, İstanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kars, Kilis, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Muş, Niğde, Osmaniye, Şanliurfa, Siirt, Şırnak, Tokat and Van

For further information, please contact:

Sema Hosta, UNICEF Communication Officer:
(+90) 312 454 10 10, Cell: 0533 622 83 46

Fatma Özdemir-Uluç, UNICEF Education Officer:
(+90) 312 454 10 07, Cell: 0532 640 4759

For more information about Girl’s Education in Turkey, read the Summer 2003, Autumn 2003 and Winter 2004 issues of ‘Say Yes’ the quarterly newsletter of UNICEF Turkey.

Visit the UNICEF headquarters website for more information on Girls’ Education campaigns worldwide.

Previous page  |  Next page

ARCHIVE

Search UNICEF Turkey
   

• Advanced Search

 * How to use RSS …