Press Centre 2004/06/01: Girls’ Education

Angels of Education

Ersan Demirci for Sabah Newspaper, 1 June, 2004

Ankara, 1 June 2004 -- Four female teachers in the village of Yünkuşak in the Özalp district of Van are today no less than angels in the eyes of the village they are serving and the children they are teaching. The teachers, Çiğdem Sal, Gülsüm Sarıbanan, Sevgi Çakır and Hülya Memili, coming from such diverse parts of Turkey as Sinop, Hatay, Isparta and Trabzon first started woking in this part of the country, pioneering many initiatives in this village.

In order to persuade families to send their daughters to school, the young teachers first visited houses one by one. The village school only teaches the first five grades and students who graduate have to go to the Özalp district centre to complete the last three years of their compulsory eight-year education. But few boys get sent to the district centre school and there no girls actually get the chance. This was where our four teachers came in and managed to get four girls enrolled in the school at the district center.

Their first time in Eastern Anatolia

Sevgi Çakır and Hülya Memili have been in Yünkuşak for two years their colleagues Gülsüm Sarİbanan and Çiğdem Sal were posted more recently. When their parents learnt that their daughters would be teaching in a remote settlement 20km from the district centre and 80km from Van itself, that the roads are frequently blocked in winter and that the village is sometimes hard to reach even by phone, they said: just give it up, you’ll find another job.

But the four teachers were determined to do their duty on the spot where they were posted.

Çiğdem Sal is 25 years old and originally from Trabzon. She graduated from the Faculty of Education of 9th September University in İzmir last year. She is now teaching grade 3 in Yünkuşak school. Gülsüm Sarıbanan, 23, is from Isparta. She graduated from the same university as Çiğdem. This is her first professional assignment, teaching grades 4 and 5. Hülya Memili, 23, is from Hatay. She graduated from the Education department of Niğde University two years ago and is now teaching 15 girls and 6 boys in grade 1. Sevgi Çakır, 27, from Sinop graduated from the Education Department of Selçuk University in Konya two years ago. She teaches 16 girls and 10 boys in grade 2.

The number of girls in school doubled

The first thing these committed teachers wanted to do was to take an initiative to ensure the school enrolment of girls. They covered twice this village with 650 inhabitants living in 70 households and numerous meetings with families. These efforts proved to be effective as testified by an increase in the number of girls attending school from 30 to 62. In fact, girls outnumbered boys (52) in the school for the first time this year.

They restored the lodge to stay in the village

Since the two school lodgments in the village had been out of use for six years, the teachers at first stayed in the district center and commuted. Eventually they decided to stay in the village, considering that access might not be possible in winter. For three weeks they worked hard to make the buildings habitable, planting sixty saplings around the school building. At the same time they managed to provide school uniforms and materials for their 110 students with the support of a charitable local businessman,.

Now they are four angels of education teaching the children of Yünkuşak and living in the village as one of the locals.

They didn’t disappoint their teachers

Pleasing news for the teachers means that they can prepare to reap the fruits of their efforts towards the end of the school year. They have not been disappointed by the girls going to the district centre school within the framework of the school bussing system. Cousins, Sevda and Saliha Gümüşlü, the first girls ever to attend school at the district centre will be credited for their high school performance. They say:

Before us, no girl s were sent to the district school from our village. Our lives changed when our teachers convinced our families. We are following the example of our teachers. We worked hard not to disappoint them and our parents. They say we are going to get a distinction for our school performance and high grades.

Our relatives in the village say they are going to send their daughters to school too. We owe all this to our teachers.

“It’s good to be here”

Throwing themselves into their work, the teachers happilly admit, it’s good to be here. With only two weeks before summer vacation, the word is that the local authorities including the Governorate of Van, the District Governorate of Özalp and the District Directorate of Education are planning to award them a certificate of good performance for their efforts.

Letter from a child dreaming of ice cream

Four angels spent their weekends in the village, again with their students, when the roads were blocked in winter. Together with their students, they watched videos they hired from Özalp district centre. Discussing the videos, they recall a touching event they witnessed during one of these video shows.

After watching children eating ice cream in one of the videos, many of the students were curious about it and said they would like to taste it too. One night, Engin Tak, a 5th grade student who had tried ice cream, dreamt of a small car selling ice cream. The following morning he went to his teacher, Gülsüm Sarıbanan, and said, After the TV show I had a dream about that Panda ice cream commercial, I am going to write to them and ask them for some ice cream for my friends here. On the approval of his teacher, Engin’s letter was posted in the district center.

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