Turkey - Gender separation in Istanbul Imam Hatip school sparks debate. (HD).
Administrators at the Akşemsettin Anadolu İmam Hatip High School, a religious vocational high school in central Istanbul, have begun segregating genders, with an Education Ministry official saying the implementation was necessary “due to physical needs.”
“Due to a high number of students, some 75 percent of schools in the Esenler [district] offer education in two shifts,” said Muammer Yıldız, the head of the Education Directorate in Istanbul, on Oct. 28, indicating that the school in question was segregating these shifts on gender lines.
However, the move has sparked a fresh debate on single-sex education, with the “secular” character of schools across the country being placed under the spotlight.
The provincial head of the schools in Istanbul said the school would return to co-ed education once conditions improve.
However, Gürsel Tekin, the secretary general of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), strongly disagreed.
“This cannot be explained in words other than bigotry and reactionaryism,” Tekin said in a statement. Read the full story here.
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