Turkey's Ministry of National Education (MEB) changed the Code of Private Schools. From now on, students who study at private vocational and technical high schools can be employed as a cheap workforce. While the minimum wage in Turkey is 1.400 lira ($380) per month, the students will be paid 1.000 lira ($270) per month, which means 11 lira ($3) per hour.
The pro-government media, on the other hand, presented the case as “the fresh force of the business life is high-schoolers”. Despite the fact that child labour is forbidden in Turkey, the new regulation paves the way for it. Many cases involving child labour, which ended up with the death or injury of children, are known by the public, such as the most recent one of Ali Yıldız, a 16-year-old boy, who hanged himself at the car upholstery shop he was working for.
According to the new regulation, students will be paid 1.000 lira per month and will work for 3 hours on weekdays, and 8 hours on Saturdays. The students will not work during summer holidays or any other official holidays.
Kemal Şamlıoğlu, the Chief Executive of Private Schools, explained that they “aimed to increase the contribution of private vocational schools to the national economy”. Şamlıoğlu maintained: “We determined the fields in need, blending the demands of corporations and the needs of the public. The revenue from the sale of the goods produced this way will be used in educational and administrative services.”
Even though nobody knows what these “educational and administrative services” are, Şamlıoğlu seems to have overlooked the fact that another 7 thousand children started to work in 2016, half of whom are deprived of their educational rights. In Turkey, more than 716.000 children are now involved in the workforce.
