With the contribution of Istanbul Medeniyet University and Kadir Has University, “We Have our Say for the Future 2021: Savings and Efficiency Symposium” was organized by Üsküdar Directorate of National Education on January 14, 2021. Through the online symposium, the students of the project high schools in Üsküdar were provided with comprehensive information about the subject. Üsküdar District Director of National Education Sinan AYDIN, our Vice Rector Prof. Yaşar BULBÜL, Rector of Kadir Has University Prof. Sondan DURUKANOĞLU FEYİZ, Prof. Osman ZAİM, from Kadir Has University, and our faculty members Prof. Sevda AVCI, Assoc. Prof. Hasan KÖTEN, Assoc. Prof İsa YILMAZ, Prof. Halil İbrahim SAĞLAM, and Assoc. Prof. Özcan Erkan AKGÜN and the administrators, teachers and students from the project schools participated in the event. The students from the project schools in Üsküdar were informed during the online symposium.
Our Faculty of Educational Sciences provided support to the “Savings and Efficiency in Education” dimension of the project under the consultancy of Assoc. Prof. Özcan Erkan AKGÜN, who worked on this dimension with Haydarpaşa High School Project Team. Ayşenur İŞAL, Deren ÇIĞ and Hakan Deniss YURT, who were part of the team, were supported by the school’s guidance teacher Duygu Betül KOCA. In this context, Assoc. Prof. Özcan Erkan AKGÜN presented a statement titled “Education-Productivity Relationship” to the project group at the first meeting. The paper discussed how productivity in education could be related to productivity in our country. Opinions were exchanged on the main factors to increase efficiency in education and how they affect education.
Asst. Prof. Dr. İsa Yılmaz, member of our Faculty of Political Sciences, stated in his speech titled “The Importance of Saving for Development” that the concept of savings can be defined as a balance between waste and stinginess; that the concept of economics includes the meanings of kist (being fair) and kast (being moderate). Stating that the discipline of economics aims at a fairer income distribution, a more developed economy and a more sustainable economy, Yılmaz stressed that preventing waste of resources in this context is of great importance for the efficient distribution and sustainability of resources. In the following part of his speech, Yılmaz underlined that the aims of sustainable growth, a developed economy and fairness in income distribution can be achieved with the incorporation of the savings approach into the national economy.
Two faculty members of our Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Sevda AVCI and Assoc. Dr. Hasan KÖTEN, made presentations on “Saving in Technology” and “Efficiency and Technology Production“. In their presentations, our faculty members mainly examined the issues efficiency and savings under the sub-themes of education, technology, human resources and other resources. In this context, they drew attention to the importance of using every resource that humanity has very efficiently and making it sustainable in an economical way. They discussed how to use resources efficiently in the technologies produced. The importance of designing the technology developed as engineers in accordance with recycling was also emphasized.
In addition to the detailed information provided to the students in each session, the students’ studies on related subjects were also analyzed and discussed.
After the first meeting, the project team reconvened on February 19 and 24 to develop the data collection instruments. The data were collected and reported by Üsküdar Directorate of National Education.