At a meeting on Monday 8th February at Conservative Headquarters, organised by Enfield Southgate MP, David Burrowes, members of the Turkish community met with Schools Minister, Nick Gibb MP, and Zac Goldsmith, Conservative Candidate for London Mayor, to discuss the future of Turkish GSCEs and A Levels. Members are as follows:
Ali Uysal, Necip Demir, Necmi Hasanoglu, Mansur Isikbol, Sevinc Caglar, and Taskin Barac.
Whilst negotiations continue, the Minister confirmed that the existing Turkish course and qualifications at GCSE and A Level will be extended until May 2019. He also assured the Turkish community that the new Turkish GCSE and A Level course will be ready to be taught in September 2018.
Nick Gibb MP said: “We were clear during the election that we would protect qualifications in minority languages such as Turkish and we are committed to delivering on that promise. We hope to have the new qualifications ready for first teaching in 2018.”
David Burrowes MP said “I am delighted that the Conservatives promise to secure the future of Turkish exams is being delivered”. As he pointed out this practice will allow the details of the new GCSE and A Level courses to be worked out with the exam body OCR. He expressed his satisfaction about Zac Goldsmith’s support on this issue
Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, expressed his approval about the reassurance to secure the future of Turkish as a modern language. He said “Community languages like Turkish are an important bridge in building social and economic ties between partner countries.”