At a ceremony in the Presidential Complex on Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the hiring of 20,000 teachers while pledging more financial support for educators. Teachers learned their place of assignment at the ceremony through an electronic draw.

The hiring comes 11 days before the start of a new school year for millions of students. With the new recruits, the number of teachers in Türkiye has now exceeded 1 million. Erdoğan said it was a significant development, citing that number of teachers in Türkiye was only around 526,000 about two decades ago, before his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) won its first elections.

Erdoğan said women make up 60% of the country's teachers, saying that the AK Party ended the "injustice" faced by female teachers, especially in the period before and after the 1997 coup, when headscarf-wearing teachers were expelled from the public sector. "None of our civil servants are forced to make a choice between their career and beliefs," the president said. He said the government also resolved problems related to the rights of teachers by introducing new regulations for better recognition of the profession, which also brought new titles and related advantages, such as pay raises.

Teaching is among the most popular professions in the country, though salaries have long been relatively low for those working in public schools. The government has worked to improve the financial state of teachers and aims to address their issues with a comprehensive bill implemented this year. The new bill offers significant pay raises for veteran teachers and grants them new titles like "head teacher" if they have worked as an educator longer than their peers.