Directorate of Education: Contact the school, School: There is nothing we can do

* Photo: AA - Archive

Click to read the article in Turkish

"We have neither Internet nor a tablet at home. Our father might be poor, but it is not our fault, we want to have an education," said 16-year-old Yasin in a social media message. He explained how he and his 8-year-old brother could not access online education amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around three months ago, Yasin had to migrate from Büyükçekmece at the outskirts of İstanbul to Turkey's southeastern province of Antep.

Their face-to-face classes started last week. They now go to school on Thursday and Friday; however, they cannot attend the online classes for the rest of the week. They have neither Internet access nor a computer.

'We sold our table to a thrift shop'

"We had to sell our table to a thrift shop," says mother Emine and adds, "What I only care about is that my children do not fall behind in school."

"We came to Antep solely because of economic hardships. My spouse lost his job. We could not pay our rent for months. We could hardly pay the bills. İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Büyükçekmece Municipality helped us out a couple of times, but we were not given any aid by the state.

"My husband actually had a good job. It was enough for us to make ends meet to a certain extent. But he was laid off and could not find another job for a long time; he is still unemployed. He gets 2 thousand lira (~250 USD) monthly unemployment pay. We do not have any other income. When we were in İstanbul, I had to sell my table, my armchair to the thrift shop. Our furniture was damaged on its way from İstanbul to Antep.

'They could attend none of the online classes'

"In İstanbul, we had Internet at home, the child had a tablet. The older one had a phone. The tablet got broken and we had to sell the phone because we needed the money. The children were born and raised in İstanbul, Antep is now different for them. They are trying to get used to it, they are trying to adapt, but they are really stressed as they have fallen behind in their classes.

"Solve my childrens' problems of education, I do not want anything else," says Emine and continues as follows:

"School started last week. They are at school on Thursday and Friday. There is online education on other weekdays. But they cannot do it, they could not attend any of them. I bought some mobile data, but we used it all up after watching a video for an hour.

'I call the Governor's Office, but...'

"I call the Directorate of National Education, they tell me that 'we should contact the school'; I call the school, they say, 'There is nothing we can do.' They said that 'they added our name to the list and the Governor's Office would deal with it.' I call the Governor's Office, but the line drops while one person transfers my call to another and another...

"I called everyone to ask for help about the school, but no one has returned my calls. Children lag behind in their classes.

"The only problem of my younger son is that he cannot attend the live lessons and that we cannot buy the source books. In addition to the ones given by the state, there are also some books recommended by the school. We could not buy those books. They say that it is mandatory. I could not buy school uniforms, either.

"My older son is always understanding and supportive, but he can sometimes give harsh reactions, what we go through is hard for him. I ask for help about the education of my children." (AÖ/SD)