Union slams ÇEDES project for burdening students with cleaning duties

Duvar English

Turkey’s elementary schools continue to face hygiene issues in the new education year, due to insufficient staff. It was reported that students were responsible for cleaning under the “I Am Sensitive to My Environment and Uphold My Values" (ÇEDES) project.

Yeliz Toy, Secretary of the Education Workers’ Union Eğitim-İş claimed that schools with uncleaned facilities and broken doors and windows were being cleaned by students under the name of ÇEDES.

Toy said ÇEDES had ceased to be a mere project under the "Turkish Century Education Model." She added, “The ministry is trying to make ÇEDES a part of the education system while expanding reactionary practices.”

She criticized the scope of the project, saying that children were taken to places like mosques, youth offices, and youth centers for meals, prayers, and cleaning activities under the guise of ÇEDES while they struggled financially. “Protocols with foundations linked to sects and communities are rapidly increasing,” the union representative stated. 

Toy noted that poverty was rising with minimum wage increases, inflation, and January adjustments. She said, “Anti-secular practices exploit poverty, targeting schools and children.”

Toy elaborated on the issue, stating, “Despite the growing hunger risk in schools, the Education Ministry ignores requests for a single meal, while religious offices organize food-related activities. Poverty is a societal reality, but what the state should be doing to eliminate it is being outsourced to the Religious Affairs Directorate.”

She added that the Education Ministry gave preferential treatment to the religious Imam Hatip schools in their projects. “Imams provide ‘education’ to primary school children in mosques, while the Directorate's 'big brothers and sisters' organize family activities to establish sect connections,” she criticized.

Toy stated that students were exploited in ÇEDES advertisements while not even being able to afford winter coats. She said, “Charity markets are set up in schools, and although children’s faces are covered in photos, they are humiliated in the adverts.”

Toy added, “While citizens struggle to survive in an exploitative system, children are being prepared for submission under the name of ÇEDES. The country’s politics are being negotiated behind closed doors, the people face hunger and poverty, and students are left in the hands of imams.” 

She emphasized the union’s will to intensify the fight against ÇEDES. “We will not give up on secular, scientific, modern, and quality education. We will not hand over our citizenship rights, the gains of the republic, or our students to religious figures,” Toy stated.