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UNICEF urges Turkey to teach in Kurdish
10.7.2006
By Emma Ross-Thomas
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ISTANBUL - July
9, -- The United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF)
deputy chief urged Turkey on Friday to try out
teaching its Kurdish children in Kurdish, saying
international examples indicated it would improve
educational standards.
Speaking Kurdish in public used to be forbidden in
Turkey and although bans on broadcasting have been
eased in line with demands from the European Union,
it remains a highly charged political issue.
But Kul Gautam, deputy executive director of UNICEF,
said examples from multi-lingual communities from
Bolivia to India showed that if children are taught
initially in their mother tongue they advance
better.
"At the very least, I think it should be tried out,
it should be experimented, because worldwide
experience tells you that it is helpful," Gautam
said in an interview.
"This may not be the answer but it could be one
answer that I think is worth considering... an
answer to better enrolment, better educational
attainment, better completion of school."
"Turkey has a primary education enrolment ratio of
90 percent, which slumps to 55 percent in secondary
school, official data shows. Literacy rates stand at
95 percent for men and 80 percent for women but
those figures hide a huge divide between prosperous
western Turkey and the poor mainly Kurdish
Southeast.
While private language schools can teach Kurdish --
an Indo-European language unrelated to Turkish --
the only language of instruction in schools is
Turkish.
For decades Ankara denied the existence of the Kurds
as an ethnic group and the European Union, which
started accession talks with Turkey last year, has
criticized Turkey for not doing enough for Kurdish
cultural rights.
The Turkish army meanwhile has been battling Kurdish
separatists in the mountainous Southeast since 1984.
"I think this is something that needs to be
considered not as a political issue but truly as an
issue that needs to be considered very
thoughtfully... as an educational issue, an academic
issue," Gautam said.
He also said Turkey, which spends 4 percent of gross
domestic product on education compared to a European
Union average of 5.5 percent, should invest more on
education.
"These are not just social welfare schemes, these
are the most powerful investment in a country's
economic prosperity and national development, so
Turkey needs to do more."
Reuters
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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