This unfair and unlawful decision that intended to deal a blow to all vocational high schools just to block the limited number of imam-hatip high schools (İHL), is a legal disaster and a great scandal. This decision, which means that the rights of the İHLs and vocational schools continue to be usurped, is the most recent concrete proof that the judicial bureaucracy is rampant with unfairness and illegality.
This judicial despotism that reduced to nothing YÖK’s decision to abolish this discriminatory practice -- invented in the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern military coup process, known for its antidemocratic and militarist practices in the late 1990s -- should have touched every conscientious individual. Although it has rejected all of the previous cases brought against this coefficient system that the YÖK has been implementing since 1999 on the grounds that “the YÖK is legally and constitutionally authorized in this matter,” the Council of State ignored the authority of the YÖK in its decision. Unlike its previous decision, the Council of State’s 10-page decision does not refer to this authority even once, and this is enough to show that it is an arbitrary decision.
It is impossible to see that this unlawful and arbitrary decision of the Council of State is more than just an ordinary ruling without considering the devastating effects it will have on hundreds of thousands of young students and their families. Frankly, I cannot understand the outrageousness of daring to victimize the graduates and students of all vocational high schools just to finish off the İHLs -- which only correspond to a small portion of vocational high schools. As you can guess, I am absolutely furious about this unlawful decision. But I have reasons for being so.
Because I’m a graduate of a vocational high school. My family did not have ample financial resources to finance my education and, at that time, my plans for my future profession did not matter much under the prevailing conditions, and perhaps, I did not know what to wish for concerning my education. So I took the exams for entrance to vocational high schools according to the family decision. I was successful, and eventually, enrolled in one of these vocational high schools in order to have a fast-track profession.
During my three-year education there, I learned that neither the education I received nor the profession my family intended for me was suitable. Yet, there was nothing I could do. Out of necessity, I continued with my education and graduated. I had failed to internalize the profession that was intended for me and the education I had received in this regard and after graduation, I decided to become a farmer instead of going ahead with that profession.
Sitting for the university exam did not cross my mind because the financial problems of the time had already killed that option for me. Despite my training on lathe operation, I worked in farming for two years. Luckily, my family’s economic situation improved because of a good harvest, and I quickly applied for the university exam. In the Student Selection Examination (ÖSS) of 1988, I managed to enter Boğaziçi University, one of the best universities in Turkey, with a good entrance exam mark. And I did this despite the poor education I had received in a vocational high school and a two-year interruption in my education.
Now, as you know, I work in a profession which is quite different from the one my family intended for me as a 13-year-old child. I have been working as a journalist for more than 15 years while maintaining an academic interest in international relations and political science education which I received at university. I manage a newspaper and write these articles. I find my job extremely significant, and I think that it adds color to my life.
Now, if the coefficient injustice which the Council of State has unanimously decided to keep in place had existed back in 1988, would my story be like this? I don’t think so. I can assure you that no brighter future other than being a lathe operator as my family intended or a farmer as I preferred would be waiting for me.
Unfortunately, Turkey is not a country where 13-year-old children can make up their own minds about their future. For this reason, they are forced to abide by the decisions their families take for them, right or wrong. You may rightfully ask who can deny them the right to change their minds about their future even if they are capable of making such decisions at the age of 13. This is what the Council of State does in the guise of legality and its status as a high court. It irreversibly denies young children the right to make preferences or change their minds.
However, the children who graduate from vocational high schools, including the İHLs, are already disadvantaged in the university entrance exams since the quality of education in these schools is far inferior to that of an ordinary high school. They are forced to take a standard exam leaving them further disadvantaged. So why are they placing extra obstacles in front of these children? If all students have to take a standard exam on equal terms in order to enter university, why should the schools they graduate from be important?
In other words, the Council of State is doing a gross injustice to the children of this country who are already trapped by the decisions taken by their parents. One is urged to ask: Given the fact that relatively poor parents tend to send their children to vocational high schools because of financial difficulties, to what extent is this unlawful and unfair obstacle to the children of these poor families attributable to the judges’ attachment to their own class and their resistance to sharing the power this class holds in its hands?
PS: Although with its decision, the Council of State has spoiled the joy of the festival for hundreds of thousands of families, I would still like to wish everyone a happy Eid al-Adha.
Benzer Haberler 
