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With the start of the new school year approaching, nearly 18 million students are set to return to classrooms on September 14. Commenting following a meeting of the Doping Hafıza Scientific Board and Board of Directors, Arif Karakuş highlighted the growing importance of new competencies as AI accelerates access to information and assessed the skills-based approach of the Türkiye Century Education Model.
Editor’s note: This press release has been translated and localized into English with AI.
The 2026-2027 academic year will begin on September 14, with approximately 18 million students returning to school after a 79-day summer break. Ahead of the new term, the Doping Hafıza Scientific Board and Board of Directors convened to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on learning processes, the skills expected to gain importance in the future, and the skills-based approach of the Türkiye Century Education Model.
Commenting on the topics discussed at the meeting, Arif Karakuş, Board Member and Deputy General Manager of Doping Hafıza, said that as artificial intelligence accelerates access to information and content creation, education must increasingly focus not only on students acquiring knowledge but also on their ability to question, verify, connect and apply the information they encounter.
“In addition to understanding how AI systems work, students increasingly need to be able to critically evaluate their outputs and use technology ethically and responsibly,” Karakuş said. He added that this transformation is also changing one of the fundamental questions in education: “With AI, access to information has accelerated. The critical question in education is no longer ‘What do you know?’ but ‘How do you evaluate and use what you know?’ The ability to question information, assess its accuracy, establish connections between different pieces of information and apply them to solving problems is becoming increasingly important.”
Karakuş said the transformation of skills in education should also be considered alongside changing expectations in the workplace, pointing to the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs Report.
Based on the views of more than 1,000 employers across 55 economies, representing more than 14 million workers, the report estimates that 39% of workers’ existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated by 2030. Analytical thinking is identified as a core skill by approximately 70% of employers. Creative thinking, resilience and flexibility, technological literacy, curiosity and lifelong learning are also among the competencies gaining importance.
Karakuş said, “The changing skills sought by employers also demonstrate why the skills dimension of education is becoming increasingly important. These competencies matter not only for the jobs of the future, but also for students’ ability to understand and navigate the challenges they encounter in a rapidly changing world.”
The official Skills Framework of the Türkiye Century Education Model includes 20 integrated conceptual skills, alongside three higher-order thinking skills: decision-making, problem-solving and critical thinking. The model also defines 21 dispositions covering students’ personal, social and intellectual development. Obtaining, verifying and evaluating information are also addressed within its information-gathering and inquiry processes.
Karakuş said, “As an education technology company operating for 15 years, we interact with hundreds of thousands of children every year. By combining our strong IT and engineering teams with our broad advisory network of academics, educators and psychologists, we evaluated the Türkiye Century Education Model from this global perspective. We believe the model represents an important paradigm shift in Türkiye’s approach to education.”
Karakuş added that it would not be accurate to view the Türkiye Century Education Model as a copy or direct equivalent of education systems in other countries. However, he noted that some of its priorities overlap with skills increasingly discussed in education policies worldwide.
“One aspect of the model that particularly interests us is its skills-based approach, which focuses not only on acquiring information but also on questioning, connecting and using it. In this respect, we believe the Türkiye Century Education Model intersects with some of the needs emerging in education policy globally,” Karakuş said, emphasizing that this alignment should be considered separately from the model’s success in practice.
The OECD’s 2026 Digital Education Outlook also notes that while generative AI can improve students’ performance on certain tasks, these improvements may not always translate into lasting learning outcomes.
Karakuş said the central issue surrounding the use of AI in education is how the technology affects students’ thinking and learning processes.
He added that ethical responsibility is becoming increasingly important as technological capabilities advance. “As technological capacity increases, the purpose for which that capacity is used and the values guiding its use also become more important. Addressing competence and responsibility together is particularly critical in the age of AI,” Karakuş said.
The Türkiye Century Education Model also identifies justice, respect and responsibility as overarching values within its “Virtue-Value-Action” approach.
Karakuş emphasized that the outcomes of a skills-based education approach cannot be evaluated solely on the basis of curriculum content.
Pointing to the importance of the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MEB) analyzing teacher feedback and working to develop context- and skills-based assessment models, Karakuş said:
“The success of an education model is demonstrated by how teachers implement it in the classroom, the assessment and evaluation system, how technology is used, and the student outcomes that emerge over time. The key question in the coming period will be the extent to which the skills defined in the model are reflected in how students think, solve problems, make decisions and use information.”
Karakuş added that technology in education should support students’ thinking processes rather than replace them, noting that the 2026-2027 academic year and the period ahead will be important for monitoring the skills-based approach in terms of classroom implementation and measurable student outcomes.
