Kurdish class at state schools

ISTANBUL – The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Kurdish will be an elective course at state schools across the country, According to Turkish media reports on Tuesday. Erdogan called it ‘a historical step’.

The elective course ‘Kurdish’ will be offered to children starting at age twelve, if at any school there are enough children interested. The minimum number of children that would need to enrol in the course at a school hasn’t been announced yet. For the time being, the classes will be given by non-accredited teachers: because Kurdish has been forbidden for decades, no accredited teachers are available.

Kurdish classes have been permitted at private institutions in Turkey since 2002. Those classes are aimed at adults, and never really got off the ground. Initially they were frustrated by the state, later there was not much interest among the population, partly because of the cost.

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