Public Education Policies in Turkey in the COVID-19 Crisis

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. With the COVID-19 crisis, new problem areas have appeared in many areas such as business, trade, social life, education, and the health sector in countries where it is effective. One of the areas where this limitation and new problems arise is the field of education. States have imposed restrictions in education and training to reduce the rate of the pandemic's spread and have suspended face-to-face education. Firstly, Turkey closed the schools for a while and then the government announced “distance learning” efforts. However, distance education has not been fully settled in both the learners and teachers. This study aims to handle education policies in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic and try to examine possible solutions for problem areas, which existed because of the pandemic. For this purpose, with a descriptive method, the subject was examined. Because of the changing spirit of the pandemic, this study focused on the education policy from March 1, 2020 to March 1, 2021.