More than 20,000 students choose Kurdish language classes in Turkey

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In the 2021-2022 school year, 20,265 students chose an elective Kurdish language course, the Ministry of National Education has announced in response to a parliamentary question.

The students will be taught the Kurmanci and Zazaki dialects of Kurdish as part of the "Living Languages and Dialects" course.

Elective Kurdish language education was included in the curriculum in 2012, during what was called the "resolution process to the Kurdish question."

Ahead of this school year, there were campaigns to encourage students to choose their mother tongue.

According to the curriculum, students from fifth to eighth grades can choose a Kurdish course, which is given two class hours a week.

While tens of thousands of students have chosen Kurdish courses since they were introduced, the Kurdish language education has been hindered due to the lack of teachers.

By 2019, the ministry had appointed only 59 Kurdish language teachers, according to a report by Evrensel newspaper. 

Zülküf Güneş, the head of Eğitim-Sen teachers' union in the Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakır, told Gazete Duvar last month that some school administrators prevented students from choosing Kurdish courses and encouraged them to choose religion classes.

Yet the number of students who chose Kurdish increased by about 20 percent this year, he noted.

Kurds make up 15 to 25 percent of Turkey's population of 84 million, according to various estimates. (RT/VK)