Kurdish to be offered as an elective landuage course in Turkish schools

Delivering a speech at his Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his government would introduce elective lessons in the Kurdish language in schools. "Kurdish will be learned and taught as an elective lesson, if there is sufficient number of students demanding it. This is a historic step," Erdogan said. Stating that another elective course will be offered for students who want to learn more about divine religions, Erdogan said that members of different religions, for example, Christians and Jews, would be able to learn about their religions, if they asked for it. Erdogan added that a course on human rights, democracy and citizenship would be compulsory in the fourth grade.