Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin and the Minister of International Cooperation and Promotion of Public-Private Partnership of the Republic of Congo, Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso, attended the 'Agreement between Türkiye and the Republic of Congo on Cooperation in the Field of Education Signing Ceremony' held in the Teachers' Room Meeting Hall of the Ministry of National Education.

 

In his speech here, Minister Tekin said that one of the most critical sectors for ensuring the permanence and continuity of cooperation between the two countries is the education sector.

 

Stating that the steps to be taken will both support other steps and ensure their permanence, Tekin said, 'Therefore, the relations in the education sector will both provide support services to other ministries and other areas of cooperation and ensure their permanence. We want these relations to be on a healthy foundation and to ensure their continuity.

 

Tekin stated that there are approximately 18 million students, 1 million 250 thousand teachers, and nearly 100 thousand school-level institutions in Türkiye, and that important steps have been taken in the construction of these educational structures, both in equipping them with technological infrastructure and in terms of educational content.

 

Emphasizing that they have taken steps in many fields of education, particularly vocational and technical education, which can meet many different needs, Tekin continued his words as follows: 'Especially in terms of the use of technological infrastructure in education, all of the schools I mentioned earlier have access to this technological infrastructure. Even our schools in the remotest corners of our country can access one of the world's largest educational informatics platforms, which we have established at the Ministry's headquarters, at any time they want, and access course content that can be shared with students. Likewise, within the scope of the development of technological infrastructure, we have also made significant progress on the education and training side of this, that is, on the related course contents and programs.'

 

Tekin said, 'One of the most fundamental issues of the period we are living in is the reluctance of new generations in the world to receive vocational education. There (in the Republic of Congo), we have developed a program that will both make vocational education attractive to young people and define the qualifications of qualified intermediate staff needed and train staff accordingly.

 

Tekin stated that they, as the Ministry, are ready to take every step to develop this cooperation with the Republic of Congo and expressed his hope that the text they will sign today will be the beginning of the relations taking root, developing, and continuing for future generations.

 

Nguesso, Minister of International Cooperation and Promotion of Public-Private Partnership of the Republic of Congo, said that the text they will sign today is the first project they will carry out in the field of education.

 

Underlining that relations between the countries will develop in line with the vision set forth by Minister Tekin and the desire of both heads of state, Nguesso said, 'Education is essentially a fundamental element for the development of cooperation between countries, and I hope that we can develop this even further with this agreement that we will take today for the education of future generations.

 

Emphasizing that Türkiye's education mission is very dynamic, Nguesso said, 'Therefore, there will be other areas where we will further develop and strengthen. As you mentioned, we definitely need to develop vocational education here. In this way, young people will have easier access to the labor market. This vocational education is indeed an issue we can work on more. The government of the Republic of Congo has already attached great importance to this issue in recent years. Our experts will further expand the framework of the agreements in their meetings. We will also examine the different areas you have mentioned. We will further examine which of these will be more beneficial for the government of the Republic of Congo, and we will continue our meetings with our experts in this direction.'

 

Minister Nguesso said that the agreement they will sign is the first step of a long journey and thanked Minister Tekin and those involved for preparing the agreement in a very short time.

 

Following the speeches, the two Ministers signed the agreement text. The ceremony ended after a souvenir photo was taken.