Since March 2020 students in Turkey have been conducting their education via online distance learning due to coronavirus restrictions. Online education is provided to students through the Education and Information Network (EBA), which was established by the Ministry of National Education. However not all of the students have access to the internet in Turkey, so thousands of students are technically deprived of education during the pandemic.
Çiftlik (Bedrû), Buğdaylı (Taxyan) and Ortaköy (Gundhedîd) villages in the Silopi district of Şırnak (Şırnex) are among the affected places. Students who live in these villages cannot connect to the EBA system due to connection problems, as reported by the Mesopotamia News Agency.
“People travel to space, but we are still waiting here for the internet” say villagers.
No internet in a village with 400 houses
There is no internet network in the village of Çiftlik, which is 10 kilometres away from Silopi. Suphi Unaç, the father of a student from the village said, “In a village with 400 homes we cannot talk on the phone and our students cannot enter the EBA system. No line works properly. There are three students only at our house. Think about the whole village. Our children cannot enter the EBA and they are deprived of education”.
He said the problem needs to be solved immediately. “Our children should be able to receive education like others. We are in the 21st century, and look what we are still living through”.
Infrastructure needs to be improved
Students in some villages are finding areas high above the ground in order to connect with the EBA system, but it is not an easy thing to do especially in winter conditions. One of those students, Ferhat Ayaz, said, “There is a network at the entrance of the village but there is no network in the village. We are having a hard time and cannot attend our classes. In the evenings, we go up to high places to connect to the internet. We want this network problem to be solved as soon as possible. But till now no work has been done about it.
Infrastructure work should be done for this”.
The problem should be solved
Father of four Salih Unaç said there are many villages like theirs in the region. “A total of five villages are facing the same problem. The EBA system does not work here. Either they solve this problem or open the schools”.
