Istanbul Governor Davut Gül visited Beyoğlu Hasköy Secondary School with 23 classrooms, which is one of the two schools whose reinforcement work was completed in Istanbul, and received information from the authorities.
Here, Gül made a statement about 93 schools, which were decided to be retrofitted or demolished and rebuilt with the decision of the Istanbul Governor's Office on February 17, and said that the 1999 Gölcük earthquake was a milestone and that the standards in the buildings changed after the earthquake.
Reminding that in this context, efforts were made to increase the resilience of the schools built before the 1999 earthquake, Gül emphasized that a special project coordination team was established in 2006.
769 SCHOOLS STRENGTHENED, 448 SCHOOLS RECONSTRUCTED
Gül reminded that 1418 schools in the city were subjected to various tests after the 1999 earthquake, and it was decided that 1351 of them would be strengthened or rebuilt and overhauled.
He stated that 769 schools were strengthened, 438 schools were rebuilt, 51 out of 144 schools were evacuated last year and 93 after the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes on 6 February.
He stated that 68 of the schools that were evacuated in the last 6 months will be demolished and rebuilt, and 25 will be strengthened.
He said that 51 schools that were evacuated in 2022 will be opened to education in January 2024, and that 93 schools that were evacuated this year are trying to be trained for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Gül stated that the students who are working in their schools will receive education in other schools as guest students for a while.
Stating that the budget for the strengthening and reconstruction works is 40 billion liras, Gül pointed out that there are no schools in Istanbul that are known to be risky and continue education, that risky schools are evacuated, and studies are carried out on private school buildings.
“WE ALSO NEED THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PHILANTHROPISTS”
Governor Gül stated that the Ministry of National Education manages one of the biggest education investments in the history of the Republic, and that Istanbul has received its share from these investments.
Stating that the city is constantly receiving immigration and the young population is high, Gül said, "Apart from the budget of the Ministry of National Education, we also need the contributions of philanthropists. With the campaign we started, our philanthropists started to build schools, sometimes alone, sometimes in cooperation with the state-citizens. Our aim is to find 1000 philanthropists as we enter the second century of our Republic and make protocols with them. Many of our benefactors have applied to us, their project and protocol process has started. I hope it will continue to accelerate."