Minister of Family, Labour and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk said: "We view particularly early childhood education services as the first step to be taken in the establishment of social justice, in increasing social welfare, human development and in social policies."

Attending the online presentation meeting of “The Project on Improving the Quality and Access in Early Childhood Education", Selçuk stated that education is a guide preparing the individual for life. Emphasizing that the government attaches utmost importance to investing in the individual as of early childhood, Selçuk noted that at this point, they have been conducting numerous studies to boost employment, improve quality of education and enhance social inclusion with IPA funds allocated by the European Union and which are the resource of the current project.

Reminding that Human Resources Development Operational Program was carried into effect in the first period of 2007-2017, Selçuk remarked, "Now we will also provide project support of more than 300 million Euros in the second period, which will last until 2025 and is called IPA 2. In the first period, we reached approximately 800 thousand citizens with our projects. We also managed 936 projects under 35 operations. We hope that we will provide opportunities for our citizens with new projects in education, employment and social inclusion with the projects we will manage in the second period as well. "

We Have Put Forth a New Vision Including Families for Nearly 23 Million Children

Minister Selçuk stated that social policies on education in early childhood, which are implemented for children-the continuation of generation, society and the guarantee of future- have become a government policy. Announcing that they have now put forth a new vision including families for nearly 23 million children in Turkey, Selçuk noted that they aim to protect all children and safeguard their rights and well-being, and in this sense, they have put many programs into effect to raise children as healthy individuals in family environment as much as possible.

Pointing out that the support they provide for the education of children has always been their priority, Selçuk emphasized that the first teacher in early childhood education is family; yet, in the first phase of education, particularly in 0-6 age group, everyone including public, private sector and universities have joint duties and responsibilities.

"Early Childhood Needs to Be Built on Three Pillars"

Minister Selçuk remarked, "Early childhood needs to be built on three pillars. One of them is to improve infrastructural quality of our kindergartens, the second is to enhance the quality of our employees and teachers who provide early childhood education in our kindergartens and the third is to prepare the contents. When we examine this project, we actually observe that all three pillars are generated by our Ministry of Education in an inclusive manner, adjacent to each other. In that sense, it is a project conforming with our vision as the ministry."

"We Are Rooting for Our 35 Thousand Children in 0-6 Age Group with Their Family by Providing Social and Economic Support (SES)"

Stating that 0-6 age group is a period when children's minds are clear and more open to learning, Selçuk continued as follows:

"The earlier we can educate our disadvantaged children, the more we will develop them in terms of social justice. As the Ministry, we give precedence to implementing our social protection programs that include all segments of society and minimize risks, by taking family as reference. We view particularly early childhood education services as the first step to be taken in the establishment of social justice, in increasing social welfare, human development and in social policies. For this purpose, we ensure that the children of families who need socio-economic support are cared for at home and those who are at school age attend school. We provide social and economic support for our children under protection, primarily in the company of their families. Today, we have 131 thousand children who benefit from Social and Economic Support (SES) service with their families and 35 thousand of them are in 0-6 age group. Thus, we support our 35 thousand children with their families by providing them with SES. "

Conveying that with School Support Project, children who benefit from social and economic support services are offered programs suiting their abilities at school and out-of-school time, Selçuk stated that they support families with conditional educational aids, on the condition that children attend school and that they discriminate in favour of girls in this regard.

Stating that 730 billion Turkish Liras were also paid for 2.6 million children in this program in 2020, Selcuk emphasized that they maintain social assistance for disadvantaged groups in 81 provinces and in all districts through Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations across Turkey.

Selçuk stated that they have implemented numerous social assistance programs for education in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

"Over 1000 Contents Have Been Interfered So Far"

Pointing out that they have also formed expert interference teams against the contents on social media in order to ensure healthy development of children by protecting them from all kinds of neglect and abuse, Selçuk reported that in this sense over 1000 contents have been interfered so far.

Noting that preparation of books with appropriate content is also included in the project, Selçuk stated, "We launched the Project of Creating Book Lists with Appropriate Content. In this regard, we continue to examine the books and publish the lists on our website. We believe that we will pave the way for mobilization and awareness across the country regarding the promotion of child-friendly practices. "

Purpose of the Project Matches Directly with the Targets Set in Education Vision for 2023

Addressing a speech at the program, Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk stated that childhood is a highly critical period that needs to be carefully addressed. Stating that they know how influential the periods when the groundwork for the formation of a child's identity and personality are laid are on the future of the child, Selçuk stated that for this reason, they are exerting immensely vigorous efforts on cognitive, emotional and motor development of children.

Stating that they are endeavouring to support children not only in relation to themselves, but also in terms of actors and stakeholders in the ecosystem they are in, Selçuk noted that they have carried out a wide variety of projects for childhood with this awareness. Selçuk pointed out that the objective of the Project on Improving Quality and Access in Early Childhood Education, implemented with joint financing of the European Union and Republic of Turkey, directly squares with the goals set out in Education Vision for 2023.

Selçuk remarked, “As individuals and institutions participating in this meeting, we are initiating a historic move altogether for early childhood period. We are bringing forward a project, a piece of good news altogether, to carry early childhood education to a step further. Today, we are aware that our needs have changed in the normalization process during or after the global pandemic period and we are conducting global comparative analyses on what to do. I am also of the opinion that these analyses will have several benefits for pre-school education and early childhood education." Stating that realization of the project is not easy and that immense preparations need to be made, Selçuk thanked Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, Minister of Family, Labour and Social Services, for her contributions.

UNICEF Turkey Representative Regina De Dominicis and First Counsellor of the Delegation of European Union to Turkey, Angel Gutierrez Hidalgo also attended the program.