Official Gazette of the Teaching Profession Law

The law regulates the selection, training, appointment, rights, duties, rewards, punishments, career advancement, and other issues related to the teaching profession. It defines teaching as a specialized profession that requires preparation in general culture, specialized area education, and teaching profession knowledge. The qualifications required for employment as a teacher, the training programs that will serve as resources for teaching areas will be determined by the Ministry of National Education. The law introduces many changes from the education process of teacher candidates to their appointments. According to the law, a National Education Academy will be established to prepare, implement, and evaluate training programs for teacher candidates, teachers, administrators, and other staff for their professional development and career advancement. The Academy will determine and update the competencies that teachers, administrators, and other staff must have and plan and implement education activities to provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and digital competencies required by the teaching profession. The Academy may provide training to other public servants if deemed appropriate. The preparatory training for teacher candidates, consisting of theoretical and practical courses, will be provided by the National Education Academy. The duration of teacher candidates' preparatory training will be 4 terms or 3 terms depending on the undergraduate program they graduate from. Teacher candidates will take at least 2 written exams for each theoretical course in the preparatory training. Those who score 60 and above out of 100 in each course will be considered successful. Candidates who fail the theoretical courses will be given one more exam opportunity for each course. Their relationship with the Academy will be terminated if they fail any course in the additional exams. The success of teacher candidates in reflecting the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors acquired in the preparatory training in the education environment will be evaluated three times. Attendance in the preparatory training at the Academy will be mandatory. Teacher candidates who are unable to attend or will not be able to attend the preparatory training for a total of 20 days or more due to health reasons based on documents will have their registration frozen until the resolution of their health issues and will be allowed up to 10 days of leave during the preparatory training for reasons other than health. According to the law, teacher candidates will receive payment in the amount calculated by multiplying the base figure of monthly coefficient of civil servants by 23,310 for each month of the preparatory training. Those whose registration is frozen due to health reasons will not receive payment during this period. Teacher candidates in preparatory training will be considered general health insurance holders under the Social Security and General Health Insurance Law. Those who successfully complete the preparatory training at the National Education Academy will be employed as contracted teachers under the Civil Servants Law. The placement of contracted teachers in educational institutions will be made based on the success score for the appointment and those who do not make a preference or cannot be placed in their preferences will be given the right to reapply for vacant educational institutions. Those who do not make a preference or cannot be placed in the second preference period will be placed by drawing lots. Those who do not start their duties without a valid excuse or leave their duties without a valid excuse once started, will not be able to reapply for contracted teaching based on the success score obtained at the end of the preparatory training and will not be admitted to the preparatory training for 1 year from the date of their appointment. Contracted teachers, except for cases of personal safety and health reasons, will not be transferred to another place for 3 years. Spouses of contracted teachers will be subject to them in case of family reunification transfers. Employment in contracted teaching and other issues related to employment will be determined by the Ministry. Those who successfully start as contracted teachers and are appointed as teachers after working for 3 years can be placed in teacher positions at the place they work upon request. Those assigned to teacher positions due to family reunification transfers cannot change their place of employment for 1 year except for transfers due to excuses. Teachers and administrators will be given service points for each calendar year they serve. Qualifications and selection of teachers, preparation training, determination of those to be included in the preparatory training, success in the preparatory training, termination of the relationship with the Academy, disciplinary penalties, disciplinary offenses and behaviors requiring disciplinary penalties, disciplinary board and application of disciplinary penalties, financial and social provisions for teacher candidates, and employment provisions for contracted teaching will come into effect as of September 1, 2025. According to the law, the teaching profession will consist of 3 career stages: teacher, specialist teacher, and head teacher. Teachers with at least 10 years of service in teaching, no punishment of stopping grade progression and completing the training organized by the Academy for specialist teaching will be granted the title of specialist teacher. Specialist teachers with at least 10 years of service in specialist teaching, no punishment of stopping grade progression and completing the training organized by the Academy for head teaching will be granted the title of head teacher. The benefit of the title will start from the date on which the competent authority approves the appointment to the teacher position, or from the date the specialist teacher/head teacher certificate is issued, respectively. A degree will be granted for each title separately to those who receive the title of specialist teacher or head teacher. According to the law, those who work as instructors/teachers or guidance counselors in official educational institutions of the Ministry of National Education, in projects conducted by the Ministry for foreign students’ education, in private educational institutions as managers, teachers, specialist instructors, master instructors, and instructors teaching on a fee-for-service basis, and in other public institutions as teachers, crimes such as willful injury, threat, insult, and resistance to perform duties within the scope of the Turkish Penal Code will result in half-folded penalties. The provisions regarding disciplinary penalties, disciplinary offenses, and behaviors requiring disciplinary penalties, disciplinary boards, and application of disciplinary penalties will not be applied. In cases not covered by the regulation, except for teacher candidates in preparatory training, the personnel within the scope of this law will be subject to the provisions of the Civil Servants Law and other relevant legislation. The Law on the Teaching Profession of February 3, 2022, was repealed by the law. Government employment, teacher appointments, and administrative assignments will be subject to the repealed legislation's provisions until September 1, 2025. Teacher candidates serving as candidate teachers on the effective date of the regulation and those who will be employed as candidate teachers until September 1, 2025, will undergo the Candidate Teacher Training Program, consisting of at least 240 course hours, focusing on personal and professional development, preparation for bureaucracy and teaching, and observing basic duties based on the activities of the institution they will serve, and practicing under the supervision of a mentor. The candidacy of those who complete the program and fulfill one year of service will be lifted, and they will be appointed as teachers.