BAKAN LAKES: WE WILL CONNECT ALL SCHOOLS IN KTSK WITH SCHOOLS IN TURKEY

The Turkish Ambassador to Northern Cyprus Metin Feyzioglu and Deputy Minister Nazif Yılmaz were present during the meeting. Ozer and Cavusoglu made statements to reporters after the meeting.

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer expressed his satisfaction with his stay in Northern Cyprus and said that a very good discussion in the field of education took place between the educational delegations of the two countries. During the meeting, Minister Ozer shared the following information about the negotiations held and decisions made:

• There are seven special education schools in North Cyprus. All teaching materials for these schools will be paid for by the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey.
• We have also expressed our willingness to fully support the achievement of full-day provision in these seven schools at the request of parents. Thus, until February 16, we will provide all the needs of these schools so that children can receive a complete education and parents can better monitor their development and acquisition of skills for life.

Minister Ozer also stressed that education and digitalization is not only important for students, but also in the context of teachers' professional and personal development. He said: "We have made significant progress in Turkey in this regard. We have recently developed an Educational Information Network for teachers. We also introduced the student and teacher support mechanism (ÖDS) to the public in the form of a digital platform.

The Educational Information Network is a digital platform linked to the personal and professional development of teachers. We have benefited greatly from this as teachers are given the opportunity to receive professional development regardless of location or time. We have noticed a significant increase in the number of educational hours per teacher. We want to provide the same opportunity to teachers in Northern Cyprus and provide this platform called ÖBA KKTC to our ministry so that all teachers in Northern Cyprus can benefit from these educational opportunities. We will also provide a support system for students and teachers designed to meet their individual support resource needs, called ÖDS KKTC. "

Ozer also said that the Directorate General of Information Technology will provide support to strengthen the information infrastructure of schools in North Cyprus and will send 750 interactive whiteboards to these schools. He also stated his intention to link all schools in Northern Cyprus with the best schools in Turkey.