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A total of 1,692,345 candidates took the Transition to Higher Education Examination (YGS) yesterday. Security was tight at the entrances of schools across Turkey, as officers frisked the test takers in the aftermath of a cheating scandal in a similar examination.
Individual searches and tight security at entrances were stressful enough for the students, but the most demoralizing moment for female students wearing headscarves taking the exam at the school was when they were asked to remove their headscarves, despite a directive from the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM), which organizes the YGS, saying that headscarved students should be allowed into examination rooms. Dispirited students were seen crying outside the building, as many female students removed their headscarves to take the test.
Vahide Yalçın, a senior at an imam hatip high school a vocational school offering Islamic education, said she did remove her headscarf but didn’t do well on the test because the situation was too distressing. “The teacher there told me that I needed to take off my headscarf. They said they would report me if I didn’t. They told me, ‘What’s the big deal, just take it off.’ So I went outside, cried for a bit and came back, but it didn’t go really well in that situation.”
Another test taker who was subject to the same treatment, Yeşim Öz, said: “After we entered the classroom, teachers at the school came to every class and told us to take off our headscarves. So we did. If we had objected there would have been problems. They said there was a law about this, but that it had been changed.”
Girl stopped by security
Another student who had to deal with Batıkent High School’s anti-headscarf treatment was Ayşenur Turucu, who was told by the school’s security that they couldn’t let her in with her headscarf. “They told me, ‘We can’t let you in. The building’s manager doesn’t want us to.’ I asked for a written order showing that I couldn’t enter, but they couldn’t produce such a document. I tried to talk to the person in charge, but that wasn’t possible, either. Many other girls removed their headscarves and went in, but I didn’t just because they wanted me to.”
Meanwhile, conservative families outside the school prayed and recited the Quran, extending spiritual support to the students. Some students were extremely nervous. Derya Tuncer had a panic attack for which an ambulance was called to her designated school in Samsun.
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