Education Ministry

Demonstrations have taken place in several towns and cities across Bulgaria after reports emerged that the Education Ministry is planning to revise key sections of the school curriculum referring to the years of Ottoman rule.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has demanded the resignation of Education and Science Minister Todor Tanev and his entire team.

"I believe that another person must hold the portfolio due to recurring problems at the ministry and the sector," Borisov said in a statement released by the government's press office on Thursday.

The Turkish Chief of General Staff has announced that necessary measures will be taken to ensure time off for Friday prayers for military personnel.

The Chief of Staff has issued a circular to related institutions in line with a recent legal change allowing public servants to attend Friday prayers without interrupting office hours.

More than 81,000 students in three southeastern Turkish towns will not be able get their half term grade reports on Jan. 22, as education has been suspended in the towns since Dec. 14, 2015. 

Some 17.5 million students across Turkey will enter their 15-day-long semester break on Jan. 22, when they will receive their grade reports. 

Turkey's government ran a 22.6 billion Turkish Liras ($7.4 billion) budget deficit last year, Turkey's finance minister announced in a press conference Jan. 15. 

The amount was 1.2 percent of the country's GDP, and less than 2 billion liras ($656 million) than was forecast for 2015, Naci A?bal said.

The Education Ministry has issued a circular in line with a recent legal change allowing public servants to attend Friday prayers without interrupting their office hours. According to the circular, schools across Turkey will be able to adjust their schedules and extend lunch-breaks for teachers.

The Youth and Sports Ministry, the Energy Ministry, and the Labor and Social Security Ministry have all seen a big increase in their share of the state budget in 2016, according to the cabinet's newly announced Medium-Term Financial Plan. 

Turkish prosecutors on Jan. 11 opened a criminal investigation into the host and the producer of a popular television talk show on charges of "terrorist propaganda" after a caller talked about the civilian casualties during the security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern part of the country.

Deputy Education Minister Sia Anagnostopoulou told daily newspaper, Kathimerini, that she disagrees with the way in which history is taught in Greek schools. “History school books must change,” she said. “Research and the opinions of scientists on history and how it is taught in schools must stop being molded within a national measure.

Education services have ground to a halt in a number of southeastern Turkish towns during curfews imposed to conduct casualty-free military operations against outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, daily Hürriyet has reported.