ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish woman in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakir (Amed) has begun teaching her children their mother tongue at home after failed attempts to secure Kurdish lessons at school.
“My eldest son studies in the eighth grade. We requested Kurdish lessons at school but this did not happen. They study in Turkish at school but there is no Kurdish,” Leyla Sasmaz told Rudaw on Monday.
She now teaches Kurdish to her sons at home.
As part of a peace process between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in 2013 Ankara legally allowed schools to teach Kurdish lessons for two hours per week. However, courses can only run if requested by at least 10 students – an obstacle to creating the classes, along with a lack of Kurdish teachers.
The classes are only available for fifth to eighth-grade students, and are not evaluated at the end of the year- discouraging some students from joining.
The government employs up to 40,000 teachers annually but only one or two are dedicated for Kurdish education.
Mam Wanda received a masters degree in the Kurdish language and hoped to to teach, but was unable to find work.
“Teachers hope that they can begin teaching [Kurdish] and students hope to be taught their mother tongue by these teachers,” he told Rudaw.
Rawest, a Kurdish research center in Diyarbakir, conducted a survey in several Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey in September 2019, to scope out the extent of Kurdish proficiency among the country’s 18-30 year olds. Of the 600 young Kurds surveyed, only 18 percent said they could speak, read and write Kurdish. Less than half of respondents, 44 percent, said they were able to speak their mother tongue.
Sharafkhan Ciziri is the spokesperson for the cross-party Kurdish Language Platform. In an interview with Rudaw English in July, he blamed the government for exploiting the fact that they approved Kurdish lessons to say that they have granted Kurds greater linguistic rights.
“Parents have their shortcomings, but the main reason [for lack of Kurdish language engagement] is that the government is insincere in its efforts,” he said.
Additional reporting, translation by Karwan Faidhi Dri
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