YÖK appeals court ban on headscarves at ALES
Headscarved test takers were able to enter exam centers without any problems during earlier ALES..
The Higher Education Board (YÖK) filed an appeal against a ruling by the 8th Chamber of the Council of State, which last month issued a stay of execution on an earlier decision by the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) to allow the wearing of headscarves during the Selection Examination for Academic Personnel and Graduate Studies (ALES).
Test takers wearing headscarves were able to enter exam centers without any problems during the ALES administered in November.
This was after the posting of a guidebook on the ÖSYM website that stated "taking the examination with one's hair exposed" is no longer a condition for taking the test. Previous guidebooks had stipulated that students applying to take the test were required to supply a photograph of themselves with their hair uncovered and that they could not take the exam unless they first removed their headscarves.
However, uneasy with test takers being allowed to wear headscarves during the ALES, the Education and Science Workers' Union (Eğitim-İş) applied to the Council of State, arguing that the use of the headscarf during the ALES would damage the principle of secularism in Turkey.
The 8th Chamber of the Council of State last month unanimously decided that the ÖSYM decision on allowing headscarves during the ALES lacked legal ground in accordance with earlier rulings by the Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Council of State.
The court added that the security of the examinations would be at risk as it would be "difficult to identify" candidates entering exam centers with headscarves on.