Turkey: 'Shoeless school' follows home tradition

By Mehmet Calik

AYDIN (AA) - Children feel at home at their school after the start of "shoeless school" project, which follows the Turkish tradition of taking off shoes when entering a home, in western Aydin province of Turkey.

"Shoeless school" opened with a motto of "my school is my other home" with the beginning of the new school year on Monday.

Students take off their shoes at the school entrance, and put on their indoor slippers before joining the classes in Aydin's Yilmazkoy primary school which has been re-designed with parquet floors.

"We have given a start to the school year to educate a significant number of students," said Yavuz Selim Kosger, the governor of the province, and added: "If you want to develop and improve your country, you need to be concerned about every inch of it."

"But you have to do it without breaking the country's own roots and national values," he said.

"Teachers, students and parents must take off their shoes at the entrance and put them in the assigned lockers," said Seyfullah Okumus, provincial director of national education.

The physical environment makes students "feel at home, keeps them calm and peaceful, boosts their concentration and reduces peer bullying at school," Okumus added.

* Writing by Havva Kara Aydin