ELAZIG GUNISIGI NEWSPAPER – February 2012
CONTINUOUS (PROFESSIONAL) EDUCATION
Education is a broad and complex concept that is difficult to define. It is closely related to an individual’s learning process. A person should learn and improve the quality of their life in society. As an individual’s educational level and knowledge increase, society progresses in parallel with this. With this development in society, issues and deficiencies are addressed.
Please don’t think that I’m meddling with the work of educators. I simply want to review education from the perspective of my own profession. I want to do this because there are collapsed buildings, people who have lost their lives, broken families, and abandoned lands. Is it fair to place all the blame solely on concrete, iron, or the builders?
There is a generation that sees high school as unnecessary, with some students barely attending school in their final year. But is the fault in the generation or in the system? The answer to that is left to educational sciences. When making decisions, universities are chosen based on score rankings, without considering abilities or interests.
There are civil engineering programs that can be completed without answering even a single geometry question. It doesn’t matter much what level of knowledge you have when you finish these programs because there is the KPSS (Public Personnel Selection Examination).
You might ask, “What’s the connection?” Here’s the connection: The government’s largest and most well-funded institutions hire civil engineers, and when this recruitment takes place, the questions asked are not related to technical or professional knowledge but to subjects like history, geography, and constitutional law.
Therefore, while students are studying civil engineering or any other department, they focus not on learning their profession but on just passing their courses with the lowest possible grades and finishing their school in this way. I can’t say they are entirely wrong, because knowing your profession well doesn’t mean much if you haven’t scored the required marks on the KPSS.
If that were where it ended, it wouldn’t be too bad. However, for both public and private sector professionals, continuous professional education is nonexistent. Let’s not deceive ourselves by citing the farce of training sessions we organize on paper.
The reality is that there is nothing in place to continually encourage professionals to learn and improve. There is no system of reward and punishment. Particularly for public sector employees, increasing and updating their knowledge for inspection purposes is crucial. In an environment where the technology of concrete and steel, as well as earthquake-resistant building design methods, are constantly evolving, you cannot prepare a project or perform inspections with outdated knowledge.
For self-employed civil engineers, the attempts by the professional chamber to establish some regulations are not enough for genuine continuous education. People’s knowledge erodes and becomes obsolete over time. Continuous review and updating is inevitable.
Currently, aside from standard materials (like concrete strength, etc.), building inspection companies do not have a checklist. However, a checklist should be created for all buildings across the country, detailing what needs to be checked during an inspection.
Failure to apply some seemingly minor rules can be a significant factor in turning homes into graves. These details must not remain in the dark, and it is only through continuous professional education, which involves constant tracking of developing information technology and conveying it to technical professionals, that this can be achieved.
The deficiencies in our educational process unfortunately affect an entire lifetime.
- In high school, a group of people who aim solely to pass university entrance exams!
- In university, graduating with the minimum score and striving to become a public employee!
- The oddity of KPSS questions that do not involve professional knowledge!
- Once you start a job, you will be in an environment where you will use the same professional knowledge for a lifetime!
With the hope of becoming a society that prioritizes education and self-development…