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Turkey’s 'devout generation' project means lost jobs, schools for many

The Justice and Development Party continues its purge of secular teachers from schools, further tacking toward the Islamization of Turkish public education and leaving thousands of teachers without jobs.
Demonstrators hold signs in front of the High Education Board (YOK) during a protest against the suspension of academics from universities following a post-coup emergency decree, in Ankara, Turkey, September 22, 2016. The sign in the foreground reads "Let the emergency decrees go. We are remaining." REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RTSOY0Z
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After his graduation from Cukurova University’s psychological counseling and guidance department, Muhammed Can wanted to work in a public school. The young Turk, an avid sports and arts lover, passed three pedagogical exams and was expecting to be finally recruited when the July 15 coup attempt interrupted the process.

As part of massive purges after the putsch, the government suspended 28,000 teachers. Though the crackdown was meant to uproot followers of Fethullah Gulen, the accused mastermind of the coup, thousands of Kurdish teachers and others belonging to trade unions aligned with the opposition were also caught in the net. The government announced it would recruit 20,000 new teachers to fill the vacancies, but it also introduced a new element to the recruitment process: an interview after the written exams.

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