Schools, which have been continuing mainly with distance education for two years due to the pandemic, started face-to-face on September 6 for the 2021-2022 academic year. Having completed the clothing and stationery supplies for the students, the parents had to go to the bookstores to shop for the 'resource books' listed by the schools at the end of the first busy week. While the cost of parents increases with the opening of schools, extra auxiliary books cause parents to have financial difficulties. National Education does not offer equality of opportunity, but equality of cost!
Despite the free books distributed in schools by the Ministry of National Education (MEB) since 2003, many schools are requesting extra resource books from the parents because the books provided by the Ministry of National Education are insufficient in the education system. With the face-to-face education that started as of September 6, parents were dealing with the expenses such as school uniforms, stationery and high service costs demanded from the schools, while additional resources were added to the expenses. While the textbooks distributed in schools by the Ministry of National Education since 2003 are insufficient for the examination system, many teachers in schools demand from parents to purchase supplementary books against this inadequacy. After two years of distance education, schools were opened and parents started to worry about school expenses. After the uniforms determined by the schools, the stationery costs requested by the teachers and the high fees they pay for the lovebirds to and from the school, the parents spend in the supplementary books requested in addition to the books given by the Ministry of Education, as they are insufficient in the education system.
BRINGS ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL LOSS TO PARENTS
Although the prices of supplementary books vary according to their fields and content, the cost of an average student's supplementary book can start from 500 TL and reach a thousand TL. While the books provided free of charge by the Ministry of National Education reduce the burden of low-income parents, the additional books purchased in addition to the textbooks, which are inadequate against the education system implemented in Turkey, bring an extra economic burden to the parents. While a new sector is forming in Turkey for the additional books purchased despite the books that are insufficient for the needs of our education system, which depends on the exams, the expensiveness of this sector has become a heavy burden for the parents.