Summer break starts for 17.5 million students in Turkey

About 17.5 million pre-school, elementary, middle and high school students in Turkey received their second-term report cards and began their nearly three-month summer break on June 9.

Not just students, but 1.22 million teachers also began the long break; but for some, the experience was sentimental, especially the 59-year-old Makbule Şahin who retired after serving 38 years as a classroom teacher. 

Şahin said goodbye to her fourth grade students for the last time, after handing their report cards at the Mithatpaşa Elementary School in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak. 

Şahin, who helped her students wear caps and gowns at their graduations, addressed them in a farewell speech saying: "Study without forgetting that you are the future of a country and a lot is expected from you. Don't doubt that. We, your teachers, and your dear families will be with you whenever needed," Doğan News Agency reported. 

Şahin could not hold her tears as well as her students and some family members. The veteran teacher then hugged her students and consoled them. 

Some students in Istanbul were surprised on their last day of school, receiving their report cards directly from Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin. The governor was joined by Istanbul provincial director of education Ömer Faruk Yelkenci at an address to the students and teachers of the Küçükmece Meraşal Fevzi Çakmal Elementary School. "Friends, make sure our backs are not always facing the student, do not let our faces always be turned to the board. Of course, we'll turn to the board sometimes to teach something, but let our faces, not backs, be turned to the students," Şahin told the teachers. 

Yelkenci, on the other hand, suggested to families that they encourage children to...