Taner YILMAZ and Halil TANIR
RPGE - Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v. 28, n. 00, e023035, 2024. e-ISSN: 1519-9029
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22633/rpge.v28i00.19707 3
Introduction
On February 6, 2023, two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 hit the Pazarcık
and Elbistan districts of Kahramanmaraş province in Turkey. Known as the catastrophe of the
century, these quakes resulted in the loss of 50,000 lives and left 130,000 people injured. The
impact was widely felt across a vast region, including Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Adıyaman,
Gaziantep, Diyarbakır, Adana, Şanlıurfa, Osmaniye, Kilis and Malatya. The destruction was
widespread, with around 40,000 structures destroyed and more than 300,000 buildings declared
unfit for occupation. Approximately 2.5 million people were left homeless, and around 5
million were displaced. It is estimated that 15 million people directly suffered the consequences
of these events, which generated an economic cost of 110 billion dollars. As well as affecting
11 provinces in Turkey, the earthquakes were felt over a wider geographical area, covering Iraq,
Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Iran and Cyprus. These events have become landmarks
among major disasters, causing significant social, psychological, political, economic,
demographic, administrative, and geological impacts (Arslan, 2023).
The earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş have negatively affected the education sector,
impacting primary and secondary schools, as well as higher education institutions. In response,
a two-week extension was granted to the half-year recess before the start of the second academic
semester of 2022-2023 throughout Turkey. Classes resumed in 71 provinces outside the
affected area on February 20, 2023. In the 10 provinces affected, the return to educational
activities was organized into three categories, based on the extent of the damage.
In these places, the return to classes was planned, taking into account the structural
integrity of the school buildings, managed by the district and school. For example, in the first
category, which included Diyarbakır, Kilis, and Şanlıurfa, classes started on March 1. However,
in Adana, also in this category, the reopening was postponed until March 13 due to local
conditions. In Gaziantep and Osmaniye, which belong to the second category, classes also
resumed on March 13. Finally, in the third category, made up of Adıyaman, Malatya,
Kahramanmaraş, and Hatay, school activities were scheduled to restart on March 27.
Meanwhile, the Higher Education Council (YÖK) announced that universities could start
the semester with remote teaching from February 20, with the possibility of adopting a hybrid
model combining face-to-face classes from April. In a statement issued on March 30, the YÖK
authorized the return to face-to-face classes at universities from April 3, on an optional basis
and combined with remote teaching, without compulsory attendance (Yağız, 2023). However,
especially in undergraduate courses with a high load of practical subjects, such as those at the