Interior Minister Çiftçi: 30,000 School Grounds Officers to Be Hired Through IŞKUR

Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi announced in a live broadcast that 30,000 'school grounds officers' would be hired for schools across Turkey. Applications will be submitted through IŞKUR.

The decision came directly after school attacks in Kahramanmaraş and Şanlıurfa. Çiftçi stated that law enforcement would continue to be stationed in schools identified as carrying security risk, while grounds officers would form an additional layer to the existing 7-Level School Security Model. The new officers will be deployed particularly at school entrances and around school grounds.

School security debate in Turkey is not new: the security officer program launched in 2012 was gradually scaled back due to budget constraints, leaving many schools without security. This new cadre of 30,000 effectively reverses that decision.