Talks at the MoNE  Tevfik İleri Conference Room focused on education cooperation between Türkiye and Montenegro.

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer expressed his pleasure at hosting the Montenegrin delegation at the meeting and reminded that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a historic visit to Montenegro last year and emphasized that this visit gave a new impetus to Türkiye-Montenegro relations.

Stating that education is one of the most essential ways to strengthen the bond between societies, Özer said, "I would like to express that we will be pleased that our educational relations with Montenegro, where over ten thousand of our citizens live, have been carried to further points. So far, 451 Montenegrin citizens have been educated by benefiting from different scholarships provided by our country. In 2022, 186 Montenegrin students, 85 of whom are Türkiye scholarship holders, continue their education in our higher education institutions. In the 2022-2023 academic year, 21 Montenegrin citizens were granted higher education scholarships. Six sister school relations have been established between the schools of our country and the schools of Montenegro. In addition, in order to improve our education relations, our Education Counselor started to operate in the presence of our Embassy in Podgorica last october." he shared his knowledge.

Özer stated that the MoU in the field of education signed in 2012 provides a ground for developing relations between the two countries and said: " For example, TİKA, which has been operating in Montenegro since 2007, has carried out nearly 400 projects with a total value of o 20 million euros. 27% of these projects are studies related with education. As emphasized at the Joint Working Group Meeting held in 2017, I would like to remind you that we are ready to share all kinds of experiences and support we can provide in the field of education. Türkiye has been going through a major transformation in the area of education in recent years. In this transformation process, our goal is to deliver education to all segments of society on the one hand and to increase the quality of education on the other hand."

By 2022, Özer noted that achieving this transformation in an education system with 19 million students and 1.2 million teachers requires significant investment and commitment. "We have four primary goals in achieving this transformation. These are: To expand preschool education, to minimize the differences in opportunities between our schools, to support the professional development of our teachers, and to strengthen vocational education."

Stating that, Özer said that they are open to sharing all kinds of experiences about this transformation process that has taken place in Türkiye in recent years and they can provide the trainer training requested by the Montenegrin delegation and they can provide the training on digital platforms.

"I admired what was done in vocational education"

Montenegrin Education Minister Vojinovic expressed great pleasure at being in Türkiye, stressing that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Montenegro was historic for them.

Vojinovic expressed that they would like to host Minister Özer and his delegation in Montenegro on this occasion and thanked them for hosting them, hoping that the cooperation between the two countries would continue to develop.

"I admired what has been done particularly in the area of vocational training," said visiting Minister Vojinovic, referring to Türkiye's transformation in education. We need training of our education staff, especially on vocational education." He made his statements.

At the end of the meeting, Minister Özer signed the book titled "The Universalization Of Education in Türkiye And New Orientations" and presented it to Montenegrin Minister of Education Miomir Vojinovic.