The Pre-School Education Program developed as part of the Primary Education Program Development project resulting from the collaboration of the TRNC Ministry of Education and the Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) was unveiled and introduced at the Rauf Raif Denktaş Culture and Congress Center. The program was then introduced at the Nicosia Turkish Maarif College.
Pre-school teachers and headmasters showed great interested to both introductory meetings. Academic consultants to the Pre-School Education Program Commission and EMU Education Faculty, Department of Elementary Education academic staff Prof. Dr. Elif Üstün and Prof. Dr. Işık Gürşimşek answered audience questions after introducing the program to the audiences.
The philosophy of the newly developed program was expressed in the following manner: The societal changes that started at the beginning of the 20th century and impacted the 21st century also affected education making topics such as what age an individual should begin their education, to gain what efficiency and how to gain this efficiency open to debate. Today, in the light of new theories education is being redefined, new methods are being tried and new goals set. For these reasons the TRNC Ministry of Education has required a Pre-School Education Program that takes notice of the requirements of a child in the 21st century, creates active collaboration between parents and educators, centralizes students, values community requirements and maximizes the individual potential of each child. Setting off from this requirement, the primary aim of the Pre-School Education Program is to maximize the development of each child according to their characteristics and learning speed. Being sensitive to the special needs of socially disadvantaged children and children from different ethnic backgrounds, a Pre-School Education Program that will increase the number of children receiving a modern and quality education has been developed.
