ISTANBUL
Turkey’s ruling AK Party-led reforms towards minority groups have not been reflected in the country’s schoolbooks, a new report released today has claimed.
‘Human Rights at Textbooks’ saw a panel of experts examine 245 schoolbooks between 2013 and 2014 for their treatment of human rights, gender equality, secularism and education philosophy.
The findings suggest that even recently published schoolbooks are failing to adequately reflect diversity in Turkish society.
"The current version of textbooks is behind social and political developments in the country. When compared to past years, problems of minorities and religious groups have been discussed more openly. However, those discussions and development have not been reflected in schoolbooks," the report claims.
"Textbooks are a difficult area. We do not know how to reflect these reforms in schoolbooks," Kenan Cayir, assistant professor of sociology at Istanbul Bilgi University, told an Anadolu Agency reporter.
Cayir says the difference between textbooks and current discussions is "too wide."
The report suggests that although the government has introduced language classes in Kurdish, Abkhazian and Lazuri, textbooks continue to ignore diversity in the country, adding that religious and social minorities such as Kurds, Armenians and Jews are sidelined.
"Schoolbooks presume that everyone in the country is Muslim," the report says. On gender equality, the images presented in textbooks still present women in primarily domestic roles, such as housewives.
Despite of these problems, Cayir stated that many changes have taken place in the last ten years. "There has been progress in positive ways," he underlined.
The findings will be shared with the Ministry of Education.
Turkey’s AK Party has led many political and social reforms during its 12 years of government. On political front, it has pushed aside Turkish military’s influence on politics, implementing reforms to reinforce the rule of law in the country.
In social areas, the party has introduced reforms to bring gender equality in line with developed countries. It has also implemented reforms for Kurdish and other minorities.
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