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Many observers criticized the appeal, saying it runs contrary to the CHP’s recent pledges that it will end all kinds of discrimination in Turkey. A bill was approved in January to lift a prohibition on students who attended some vocational high schools from applying to become police officers. The prohibition was introduced in 2001 after an amendment was made to the law on the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM). With the bill, the government was hoping to enable graduates of all high schools to be eligible to apply to become police officers.
If the Constitutional Court accepts the CHP’s appeal and decides to cancel the bill, then more than one million students who attended vocational high schools (instead of normal high schools) will be stripped of the right to apply to become police officers. More than 55,000 high school graduates took an exam recently to enter the police force.
The main opposition party drew ire from many educators and education groups with its appeal to the Constitutional Court. They believe that the CHP violated the principle of equality among all citizens inherent in the Constitution.
Süleyman Şah University rector, Professor Hüseyin Ekiz, who himself attended a vocational high school, said graduates of all high schools should be free to select which institution of higher education they would like to attend. “Graduates of normal high schools are allowed to become police officers. But graduates of vocational high schools are not allowed to do so. Why not? Are people other than the graduates of vocational high schools born to be police officers?” he said, and added that he cannot understand why the CHP wants to block the rights of vocational high school graduates to become police officers.
In its appeal, the CHP also opposed a government plan to transfer some authority from the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to the ÖSYM. According to the main opposition party, the plan will lead to the transfer of YÖK’s authority defined in the Constitution to the ÖSYM. However, the CHP has long argued that YÖK should be abolished as it is not a democratic institution.
Ahmet Özer, secretary general of Education Personnel Labor Union (Eğitim Bir-Sen), expressed concern that the CHP is working to protect the remnants of the 1980 and 1997 coups in Turkey. “The CHP wants to abolish YÖK, but also protects it. Is this not hypocrisy?” he asked.
Parliamentary Education Commission head Mehmet Sağlam said he cannot understand why the CHP decided to appeal the bill in the Constitutional Court even though it did not oppose it when the bill was being discussed in Parliament. “None of the CHP deputies claimed that the bill was against the law or the Constitution when Parliament was discussing it. I cannot understand why the CHP decided to appeal the bill at the Constitutional Court afterwards,” he noted. According to Sağlam, the bill is aimed to eliminate discrimination against graduates of vocational high schools. “It is against the principle of equality to deny entrance of vocational high school graduates into police academies,” he added
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