Turkey Triples Budget for Foundation Established to Rival Gulenist Schools

A Maarif school in Sarajevo, Bosnia, continues education during the pandemic. Photo: Maarif Schools Sarajevo

The presidential decree hiking the Maarif Foundation budget was published in the Official Gazette on Thursday. Its annual budget is now 1.23 billion lira, or about 140 million euros. This money will come from the general budget of the Education Ministry, MEB.

The Maarif Foundation was opened in 2016 - a month before the failed coup attempt which Erdogan has blamed on Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in self-exile in the US since 1999.

The huge increase in funding has drawn criticism in Turkey, with some calling a waste of money at a time when Turkey's domestic educational system is suffering from the effects of the pandemic and economic hardship.

Orhan Yildirim, head of the Union of Labourers in Education and Science, told the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet that the educational system was under great strain already.

"All the financial resources spared for the Maarif Foundation mean that the needs of millions of families and students who continue their lives in economic hardship will be transferred elsewhere.

"The MEB has not provided computers, tablets or the internet for students doing distance learning (in the pandemic) but shares this huge amount of budget money with the Maarif. This is the hand of the state seizing the rights of our children," he said.

Baris Uluocak, a senior official at the Education and Science Workers' Union, said that huge sums had been given to the Maarif ever since its establishment.

"Millions of students cannot access online education. The budget of the MEB should be used for our students, not for the Maarif Foundation," Uluocak said.

The Turkish government blames Gulen...