ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Although Kurdish has been offered as an elective course in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish provinces for the past 14 years, official figures show that the number of government-employed teachers remains critically low - and continues to decline.
Since 2012, Kurdish has been taught as an elective subject in grades five through eight. However, only 213 teachers were initially appointed by the state. Of those, 45 have since transferred to other departments and 10 have resigned. As a result, just 157 Kurdish language teachers remain on the government payroll across Turkey and the country’s southeastern Kurdish-majority regions.
Among them, 118 teach the Kurmanji dialect and 39 teach Zazaki.
Fatima Shahin, a graduate of the Kurdish Language and Literature Department at Mardin Artuklu University, completed her studies in 2020 with hopes of fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a Kurdish language teacher. Like hundreds of other graduates, she has yet to secure a position.
“I have been forced to work other jobs for the past six years,” Shahin said. “My biggest dream is to be employed as a Kurdish language teacher, to go into classrooms and teach Kurdish to Kurdish children. But unemployment is deeply discouraging.”
Hudaiy Mursumbul, a Kurdish language teacher in Diyarbakir, highlighted what he described as a widening gap in the education sector.
“This year, 60,000 students selected Kurdish courses - a number that would require at least 400 teachers,” he said. “But we only have 157.”
Kurdish was banned in formal settings in Turkey from the founding of the republic until reforms introduced under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) eased restrictions more than a decade ago. The reforms allowed Kurdish to be spoken more freely in informal contexts and introduced elective Kurdish courses in public schools, as well as Kurdish-language programs at universities.
Despite this, 874 graduates from Kurdish language departments across Turkey remain unemployed.
Education Minister Yusuf Tekin previously argued that limited demand for Kurdish electives has reduced the need for additional teachers, claiming that insufficient student interest discourages both enrollment in Kurdish-language university programs and new appointments.
Education unions strongly dispute that claim.
“When families go to schools to register for Kurdish courses, principals tell them there are not enough teachers,” Serhat Kilic, co-chair of the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Egitim Sen), told Rudaw. “On the one hand, the ministry does not hire teachers, and on the other, it says no one is asking for Kurdish lessons.”
Applications for Kurdish courses are expected to surpass 100,000 this year, further intensifying pressure on the Turkish government to increase teacher recruitment.