Court blocks religious college proposal

turkey: Court blocks religious college proposal

Turkey’s highest administrative court has ruled against a government-backed move to make it easier for students from religious training colleges to go to university, the Anatolia news agency has reported.
The Council of State blocked the implementation of a proposal made in December by the Higher Education Board (YOK) to change the way study marks are assessed, the agency said.
The YOK wanted to change the coefficients applied to the grades of students from religious colleges, called Imam Hatip schools, which currently make it difficult for them to get on university courses other than theology.
Imam Hatip schools are state-run establishments that train imams, and defenders of Turkey’s secular system sometimes accuse them of being breeding grounds of Islamism.
In November the Council of State blocked a similar proposal from the YOK that was hailed at the time by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has its roots in a now-banned Islamist movement.