By DailySabah News
School is out for about 18 million students as midterm break commenced on Friday. Students at schools in Edirne, the northwestern-most province, to Afrin, Syria, which Turkey helped liberate from the terrorist People’s Protection Units (YPG), received their report cards ahead of the 17-day recess.
It was also a bittersweet time for Syrian refugee students who spent another year far from their war-torn homeland and for Turkish students who would remain separate from their classmates.
The break, on the other hand, is a relief both for students and their parents as it also means the disappearance of thousands of school buses from traffic, especially in big cities. The occasion is also a much-anticipated period for tourism businesses, with hotels and ski resorts, already reporting full bookings for 17 days.
In line with tradition, government officials visited schools to deliver report cards to students. National Education Minister Ziya Selçuk was in the capital Ankara’s Gölbaşı district at a primary school. Selçuk advised students not to spend the recess too lazily. “You should do new things. Visit your grandparents or relatives. Have more fun with your friends. Read books. You don’t have to spend it doing homework. I’d be pleased if I saw you were interested in better things, such as helping your friends or caring for animals
