ELAZIG GUNISIGI NEWSPAPER – July 2014
WILL THIS KPSS SYSTEM NEVER CHANGE?
Education and training are a whole, and therefore, for the processes to run smoothly, every cell of the whole must exist and perform its duties without interruption. For example, if the teaching life continues in tents instead of a school building, where there are eager students and equipped teachers, or if there is no teacher where there are eager students and a well-equipped school building, it would not be possible to talk about success.
I gave these clear examples for this reason: The relationship between students, teachers, and physical opportunities also exists between the Ministry of National Education, university life, and professionals.
You may remember that on October 23, 2011, a devastating earthquake struck Van, Turkey. Immediately after this earthquake, some of our country's officials criticized university professors. They said, "The engineers you trained built these collapsed houses."
I thought a lot about these criticisms. Was there really a deficiency in teaching at universities? Since 2011, I have been carefully observing construction engineering students. In fact, for the past year, due to my administrative duties, I had the opportunity to observe the entire Faculty of Engineering.
The conclusion is as follows:
- After the university entrance exam, students do not choose professions that suit their character.
- A significant portion of students chooses professions based on high scores, without knowing the details of the profession they are choosing (The fact that many students retake the university entrance exam in their first year is proof of this).
- Due to the lack of love for the profession, it is difficult to talk about significant success.
- Many students who enter university have the primary goal of graduating with the minimum grade, and professional competence is not seen as important. The reason: Because KPSS is not a professional exam.
- Almost all third- and especially fourth-year students attend KPSS courses. Therefore, subjects such as history, geography, and constitution become more important than technical subjects for an engineering candidate.
In an environment where professional competence is not valued, let’s move on to university life. A generation focused on the KPSS exam, struggling just to graduate. Who is to blame? The youth or the university professors?
I support the KPSS exam because where there are oral interviews, allegations never end. However, I suggest that the KPSS be administered separately for each profession. In other words, it should be a technical exam. This way, young people would dedicate their time to their university departments and learn their professions instead of attending courses.
There is a major victim of the KPSS. Do you know who it is? The victim is clear, isn’t it? We, the Turkish people, the Republic of Turkey. What is at stake is our future. What could be more dangerous than an artist who is not competent in their craft?
How beneficial will people who do not know their profession and do not love their profession be for the future of our country?
Making universities valuable, taking young people's goals far beyond simply obtaining a piece of paper, does not seem possible with the current system of Public Personnel Selection. Technical professions are struggling. We want a separate exam for each department.
I can almost hear the grumbling: "Professor, you wrote this, but how will this system change?"
Maybe one will read it, maybe one will think about it, maybe one will see it, maybe one will hear it.