Darüşşafaka Roof Talks brought together people who believe in the power of education

Darüşşafaka Society, the first NGO in Turkey in the field of education which works with the mission of “equal opportunity in education” since 1863, organized for the first time this year Darüşşafaka Roof Talks with the title of “Small Stories on Big Topics”.  

The conference that brought together people who believe in the importance of education in changing lives was held on October 24th, 2018 at Istanbul Maslak TİM Show Center. Around 1.000 participants attended the conference from all around Turkey including academicians, teachers and students.

Darüşşafaka organized the conference to raise awareness on the importance of education in social development and discuss how we could define quality education and what we could do to increase the number of children who have access to quality education.

Renowned names shared their opinions and experiences

Darüşşafaka Roof Talks was hosted by journalist Özlem Gürses and the opening speech was given by Prof. Dr. Mustafa Safran, Turkish Deputy Minister of National Education.

Following the opening speech, Mr. Talha Çamaş, Chairman of the Darüşşafaka Society welcomed everyone and highlighted the importance of equal opportunity in education. 

Respectively; Prof. Dr. Umran İnan, Koç University President; Dr. Canan Dağdeviren, Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows of Harvard University and Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT Media Lab; Mert Fırat, Actor and Founder of “İhtiyaç Haritası”; Batuhan Aydagül, Director of Education Reform Initiative; Hacı Ormanoğlu, Teacher and Head of “Goncalar Solmasın” Association; Ercan Altuğ Yılmaz, Gamification Expert; Emre Alettin Keskin, who is also known as Evrensel Kamil; Dr. Kerem Dündar, MD|PhD, Founder of Neuro Health Brain Education Research and Application Center; Ayşe Begüm Onbaşı, Aerobic Gymnastics World Champion; Nilipek, Musician and Remziye Çelebi, 2018 Darüşşafaka graduate and student at Koç University’s Faculty of Law shared their life stories and experiences with the participants.

“Education is the most important issue in our country”

Mr. Talha Çamaş stated that they had been witnessing how quality education has a big impact in the lives of children and he stressed that education is the key to a more developed and stronger Turkey: “As Darüşşafaka, we have been working to provide quality education to our children for 155 years. We believe that education is the most important issue in our country. We wish that everyone in Turkey feels the same way and more children would have access to quality education. Our country’s future depends on this.”