Turkey’s Ministry of Education shuts down co-ed dorms

The Ministry of Education (MEB) has decided to shut down private co-ed dorms and to provide separate accommodation services for male and female students
Tuesday, 15 August 2017 05:28

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided to provide separate accommodation services for male and female students in private co-ed dorms under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.

The ruling AKP’s reactionary attacks on education have now targeted dormitories. The Ministry of Education (MEB) has decided to shut down private co-ed dorms and to provide separate accommodation services for male and female students.

Previously, in a regulation introduced on May 6, 2017, the Ministry of Education dropped any mention of “co-ed dormitories." The Turkish government has now asked for the prohibition of these institutions, according to a report in the daily Cumhuriyet. The report reveals that the General Director of Secondary Education Kemal Şamlıoğlu gave two orders to the 81 provincial governors asking for co-ed dormitories to be shut down.

Back in 2013, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had stated that "We do not allow mixed-gender student houses in state-owned dormitories. We do not care what newspapers write on it. There can be no educational or psychological justification for mixed-gender accommodation services in the whole world. [IA8] We have intervened in this issue, and we will continue to exert efforts to separate female and male students in our dormitories."    

With a regulation enacted on July 2017, the AKP government had also prohibited the employment of male personnel at female dormitories and female personnel at male dormitories and introduced legal penalties. In the same regulation, it was stated that two students will not be able to stay in the same room in private dormitories.