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School dropouts in Iran exceed one million

Dai Toruko

Dai Toruko

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In Iran, the COVID-19 pandemic along with the economic crisis have pushed more than one million students to drop out of school. And a lack of online teaching hasn't helped either.
 
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Dai Toruko said:

In Iran, the COVID-19 pandemic along with the economic crisis have pushed more than one million students to drop out of school. And a lack of online teaching hasn't helped either.
Click to expand...
You should know better....your people are missing school waiting on bread lines..!!

In Turkey, bread lines grow longer as inflation soars​

Growing bread lines in Istanbul bear testament to the financial pain Turkish households are wrestling with.
Image.jpeg

People line up to buy bread at Istanbul Halk Ekmek's subsidised bread kiosk in Uskudar [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
By Umar Farooq
Published On 13 Dec 202113 Dec 2021
Istanbul, Turkey – On a sunny afternoon this week in Istanbul’s Uskudar neighbourhood, retiree Niazi Toprak sat on a bench reading the newspaper as he waited for a fresh delivery of bread to arrive. Joining him were dozens of other people who had also lined up at the nearby kiosk belonging to the city’s subsidised bread programme.
Istanbul Halk Ekmek, or “Public Bread”, sells a 250g (8.8 oz) baguette for 1.25 Turkish liras ($0.09) – cheaper than at nearby bakeries, where prices start at 2.50 liras ($0.18).
Though the difference is measured in pennies, the savings add up for Toprak and many other Istanbulites who queue at more than 1,500 such kiosks across the city each day.
“Everything is getting expensive, from your food to your bread, from your shirt down to the socks you wear,” the 71-year-old Toprak told Al Jazeera.
A former truck driver and produce wholesaler who retired five years ago, he recently moved in with his children because money is tight. “My retirement social security only brings in 800 liras ($56) a month, so that’s not enough these days to live alone on,” Toprak said. “We are four people in the house, and our rent is 2,000 liras ($140 a month). Each of us eats at least one loaf a day, so I plan on buying four loaves from here. You need to save every bit of money you can these days.”
The Turkish lira has lost roughly 48 percent of its value against the United States dollar this year, experiencing an all-out crash in November.
That same month, Turkey’s annual inflation rate jumped to 21.3 percent, according to government statistics. But critics of the government doubt even that eye-watering calculation, pointing to what appear to be far larger increases in the prices of food, rent and energy.
The Istanbul municipality, currently headed by the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, has put out its own figures showing the cost of living in the city has increased more than 50 percent in a year. According to the Istanbul Statistics Office, the price of wheat has gone up 109 percent, sunflower oil 137 percent, toilet paper 90 percent, sugar 90 percent, and natural gas 102 percent.
3256c.jpg
Images of long lines at Istanbul’s bread kiosks over the past few weeks bear testament to the inflation-fuelled decline in living standards in the city, especially for lower-income households [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
For many, the price of bread is the pulse of the Turkish street. The country’s Bread Industry Employers’ Union estimates 200-300kg (440-660 pounds) of bread is consumed per person per year in Turkey. It’s most often a soft baguette, sliced up like toast and used to scoop up eggs, cheeses, olives, jams, and other breakfast foods. In thousands of Istanbul’s cafeteria-style restaurants called “esnaf lokantasi” that cater to workers craving home-cooked options, the slices are presented alongside beans, or soup, or other dishes. On Istanbul’s sidewalks, a baguette is sliced in half and used to make a sandwich of chicken, or ground beef, or fish.
Bread is such an important staple that during the height of strict lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, Turks were allowed to leave their homes for two things: visits to the pharmacy, or visits to the bakery.
“Bread is an essential item in Turkish cuisine, and it’s frequently consumed especially if you are a poor family,” said Berk Esen, an IPC-Stiftung Mercator fellow at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies and an assistant professor at Sabancı University. “For a family of five or six people for instance, where parents and children and elderly live together, maybe at least two pieces of bread are eaten every day. So even if the Halk Ekmek bread is just a few liras cheaper, over a month that adds up to a substantial amount for a low-income family, and the price gap between that bread and what is in the markets is only going to widen as inflation goes up.”
Inflation has become the political hot-button issue in Turkey, with opposition parties even calling for early elections, alleging that the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seem to be oblivious to the hardship being faced by many in Turkey.
While Erdogan has the authority to appoint or sack government ministers and central bank policymakers, municipal governments in major cities like Istanbul and Ankara are currently headed by opposition figures.
Istanbul’s Mayor Imamoglu has rolled out his own local efforts to alleviate poverty in the city. Halk Ekmek “Public Bread” daily production has doubled to more than 2.5 million baguettes and other varieties of bread. Anonymous benefactors can go online to pay utility bills for struggling residents. The city also distributes baby formula and milk for thousands of mothers in need, and offers modest scholarships for students grappling with rising costs in the metropolis of 16 million people.
Similar programmes run by the federal government also exist, such as aid for new mothers, and scholarships for students. But critics say the lifelines have not kept pace with rising need as inflation squeezes Turkish households. The federal government is also currently negotiating with labour groups on boosting the minimum wage, and authorities have stepped up inspections of grocery stores to check for price gouging and hoarding of essential items.
Istanbul’s subsidised bread programme has been around since the 1970s. While it was founded by the CHP, Esen said successive governments have recognised its importance and worked on expanding it, including the AKP, which headed the municipality for more than a decade.

A 24-hour operation​

Nestled between partially built skyscrapers on the eastern edge of Istanbul, Halk Ekmek’s Kartal factory has an assembly line that produces a constant, loud noise that makes it difficult to hear. The 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation is at the centre of an effort to provide a basic staple to Istanbul’s residents who are struggling to make ends meet.
Approximately 100 workers are employed at the factory, but a need for speed and efficiency means the bread is made with minimal human intervention, the ingredients mixed by machines that then knead the dough, cut it into shape, and pass it through specially designed ovens on four separate production lines.
DSC03164.jpg
Subsidised bread production at the Istanbul Halk Ekmek factory in Istanbul’s Kartal neighbourhood [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
Two lines for baguettes pump out 7,500 pieces of bread an hour, while others produce 25,000 pieces of smaller square bread. Some 360,000 baguettes and 600,000 small square pieces of bread are produced a day here, but engineer Mustafa Umit Ikinmez said that is still not enough to meet demand. “We are always trying to increase our capacity for production,” Ikinmez told Al Jazeera.
The bread is then packed in 30 to 40 trucks that distribute the loaves to sites all over the city three times a day.
The Kartal factory is one of three the municipality operates in Istanbul producing basic bread as well as dozens of specialty loaves – from gluten-free to whole wheat – that are sold not only at municipal kiosks but also at grocery chain stores.
Images of long lines at Istanbul’s bread kiosks over the past few weeks bear testament to the inflation-fuelled decline in living standards in the city, especially for lower-income households.
Ozgen Nama, vice head of the city’s Halk Ekmek programme, told Al Jazeera that demand has dramatically increased all over the city, but the longest lines are seen in the working-class neighbourhoods far from the city centre.
“We have doubled production [in the last two years] and there are still lines, and this only shows that people don’t have purchasing power, and that they are becoming poorer,” Nama said. “It’s a clear indication people are becoming poorer in this country.”
The municipality is building another factory that is expected to come online next year, adding an additional one million loaves of subsidised bread to feed the city’s struggling population. But Nama said that extra supply won’t be enough to meet the city’s needs. “Even if we quadrupled our production, it would not be enough to meet demand. The bread is finishing, but the lines are only half gone,” he said.
The supply of baguettes had sold out in less than an hour one afternoon at a kiosk in the western neighbourhood of Esenyurt visited by Al Jazeera. “There’s a line here every day,” said a worker who asked Al Jazeera to withhold his name. “The bread is delivered at 2pm, and by 3pm it’s gone, and people at the back of the line go home empty-handed,” he said, counting the day’s cash intake as he prepared to close up shop early.
Meanwhile, private bakeries in the city are having a difficult time just keeping their prices somewhat affordable at 2.5 Turkish liras for a 250g loaf of bread.
The Bread Industry Employers’ Union, which represents private bakers in Turkey, is in a constant struggle with federal authorities like the Ministry of Agriculture to find a way to lower costs. Prices for bread’s main ingredient – flour – increased 85 percent between April and November this year, according to a statement by the union. Low wheat harvests in 2021 were partly to blame, the union has said, but a major cause of the price increase is the rapid devaluation of the lira. Fertiliser, fuel, and other necessities to produce wheat, for instance, are often imported and paid for in euros or dollars, and that cost is passed on to bakeries.
DSC03179.jpg
Engineer Mustafa Umit Ikinmez inspects production at the Istanbul Halk Ekmek factory in Istanbul’s Kartal neighbourhood [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
Nama said the municipality purchases flour up to eight months in advance, to keep ahead of inflation. But the price of flour, he says, has rocketed from 127 liras ($8.95) for a 50kg (110 pounds) bag near the start of the year, to 350 liras ($24.67) today.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

RELATED​

MORE FROM ECONOMY​

MOST READ​



 
.
aryobarzan said:
You should know better....your people are missing school waiting on bread lines..!!

In Turkey, bread lines grow longer as inflation soars​

Growing bread lines in Istanbul bear testament to the financial pain Turkish households are wrestling with.
Image.jpeg

People line up to buy bread at Istanbul Halk Ekmek's subsidised bread kiosk in Uskudar [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
By Umar Farooq
Published On 13 Dec 202113 Dec 2021
Istanbul, Turkey – On a sunny afternoon this week in Istanbul’s Uskudar neighbourhood, retiree Niazi Toprak sat on a bench reading the newspaper as he waited for a fresh delivery of bread to arrive. Joining him were dozens of other people who had also lined up at the nearby kiosk belonging to the city’s subsidised bread programme.
Istanbul Halk Ekmek, or “Public Bread”, sells a 250g (8.8 oz) baguette for 1.25 Turkish liras ($0.09) – cheaper than at nearby bakeries, where prices start at 2.50 liras ($0.18).
Though the difference is measured in pennies, the savings add up for Toprak and many other Istanbulites who queue at more than 1,500 such kiosks across the city each day.
“Everything is getting expensive, from your food to your bread, from your shirt down to the socks you wear,” the 71-year-old Toprak told Al Jazeera.
A former truck driver and produce wholesaler who retired five years ago, he recently moved in with his children because money is tight. “My retirement social security only brings in 800 liras ($56) a month, so that’s not enough these days to live alone on,” Toprak said. “We are four people in the house, and our rent is 2,000 liras ($140 a month). Each of us eats at least one loaf a day, so I plan on buying four loaves from here. You need to save every bit of money you can these days.”
The Turkish lira has lost roughly 48 percent of its value against the United States dollar this year, experiencing an all-out crash in November.
That same month, Turkey’s annual inflation rate jumped to 21.3 percent, according to government statistics. But critics of the government doubt even that eye-watering calculation, pointing to what appear to be far larger increases in the prices of food, rent and energy.
The Istanbul municipality, currently headed by the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, has put out its own figures showing the cost of living in the city has increased more than 50 percent in a year. According to the Istanbul Statistics Office, the price of wheat has gone up 109 percent, sunflower oil 137 percent, toilet paper 90 percent, sugar 90 percent, and natural gas 102 percent.
3256c.jpg
Images of long lines at Istanbul’s bread kiosks over the past few weeks bear testament to the inflation-fuelled decline in living standards in the city, especially for lower-income households [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
For many, the price of bread is the pulse of the Turkish street. The country’s Bread Industry Employers’ Union estimates 200-300kg (440-660 pounds) of bread is consumed per person per year in Turkey. It’s most often a soft baguette, sliced up like toast and used to scoop up eggs, cheeses, olives, jams, and other breakfast foods. In thousands of Istanbul’s cafeteria-style restaurants called “esnaf lokantasi” that cater to workers craving home-cooked options, the slices are presented alongside beans, or soup, or other dishes. On Istanbul’s sidewalks, a baguette is sliced in half and used to make a sandwich of chicken, or ground beef, or fish.
Bread is such an important staple that during the height of strict lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, Turks were allowed to leave their homes for two things: visits to the pharmacy, or visits to the bakery.
“Bread is an essential item in Turkish cuisine, and it’s frequently consumed especially if you are a poor family,” said Berk Esen, an IPC-Stiftung Mercator fellow at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies and an assistant professor at Sabancı University. “For a family of five or six people for instance, where parents and children and elderly live together, maybe at least two pieces of bread are eaten every day. So even if the Halk Ekmek bread is just a few liras cheaper, over a month that adds up to a substantial amount for a low-income family, and the price gap between that bread and what is in the markets is only going to widen as inflation goes up.”
Inflation has become the political hot-button issue in Turkey, with opposition parties even calling for early elections, alleging that the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seem to be oblivious to the hardship being faced by many in Turkey.
While Erdogan has the authority to appoint or sack government ministers and central bank policymakers, municipal governments in major cities like Istanbul and Ankara are currently headed by opposition figures.
Istanbul’s Mayor Imamoglu has rolled out his own local efforts to alleviate poverty in the city. Halk Ekmek “Public Bread” daily production has doubled to more than 2.5 million baguettes and other varieties of bread. Anonymous benefactors can go online to pay utility bills for struggling residents. The city also distributes baby formula and milk for thousands of mothers in need, and offers modest scholarships for students grappling with rising costs in the metropolis of 16 million people.
Similar programmes run by the federal government also exist, such as aid for new mothers, and scholarships for students. But critics say the lifelines have not kept pace with rising need as inflation squeezes Turkish households. The federal government is also currently negotiating with labour groups on boosting the minimum wage, and authorities have stepped up inspections of grocery stores to check for price gouging and hoarding of essential items.
Istanbul’s subsidised bread programme has been around since the 1970s. While it was founded by the CHP, Esen said successive governments have recognised its importance and worked on expanding it, including the AKP, which headed the municipality for more than a decade.

A 24-hour operation​

Nestled between partially built skyscrapers on the eastern edge of Istanbul, Halk Ekmek’s Kartal factory has an assembly line that produces a constant, loud noise that makes it difficult to hear. The 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation is at the centre of an effort to provide a basic staple to Istanbul’s residents who are struggling to make ends meet.
Approximately 100 workers are employed at the factory, but a need for speed and efficiency means the bread is made with minimal human intervention, the ingredients mixed by machines that then knead the dough, cut it into shape, and pass it through specially designed ovens on four separate production lines.
DSC03164.jpg
Subsidised bread production at the Istanbul Halk Ekmek factory in Istanbul’s Kartal neighbourhood [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
Two lines for baguettes pump out 7,500 pieces of bread an hour, while others produce 25,000 pieces of smaller square bread. Some 360,000 baguettes and 600,000 small square pieces of bread are produced a day here, but engineer Mustafa Umit Ikinmez said that is still not enough to meet demand. “We are always trying to increase our capacity for production,” Ikinmez told Al Jazeera.
The bread is then packed in 30 to 40 trucks that distribute the loaves to sites all over the city three times a day.
The Kartal factory is one of three the municipality operates in Istanbul producing basic bread as well as dozens of specialty loaves – from gluten-free to whole wheat – that are sold not only at municipal kiosks but also at grocery chain stores.
Images of long lines at Istanbul’s bread kiosks over the past few weeks bear testament to the inflation-fuelled decline in living standards in the city, especially for lower-income households.
Ozgen Nama, vice head of the city’s Halk Ekmek programme, told Al Jazeera that demand has dramatically increased all over the city, but the longest lines are seen in the working-class neighbourhoods far from the city centre.
“We have doubled production [in the last two years] and there are still lines, and this only shows that people don’t have purchasing power, and that they are becoming poorer,” Nama said. “It’s a clear indication people are becoming poorer in this country.”
The municipality is building another factory that is expected to come online next year, adding an additional one million loaves of subsidised bread to feed the city’s struggling population. But Nama said that extra supply won’t be enough to meet the city’s needs. “Even if we quadrupled our production, it would not be enough to meet demand. The bread is finishing, but the lines are only half gone,” he said.
The supply of baguettes had sold out in less than an hour one afternoon at a kiosk in the western neighbourhood of Esenyurt visited by Al Jazeera. “There’s a line here every day,” said a worker who asked Al Jazeera to withhold his name. “The bread is delivered at 2pm, and by 3pm it’s gone, and people at the back of the line go home empty-handed,” he said, counting the day’s cash intake as he prepared to close up shop early.
Meanwhile, private bakeries in the city are having a difficult time just keeping their prices somewhat affordable at 2.5 Turkish liras for a 250g loaf of bread.
The Bread Industry Employers’ Union, which represents private bakers in Turkey, is in a constant struggle with federal authorities like the Ministry of Agriculture to find a way to lower costs. Prices for bread’s main ingredient – flour – increased 85 percent between April and November this year, according to a statement by the union. Low wheat harvests in 2021 were partly to blame, the union has said, but a major cause of the price increase is the rapid devaluation of the lira. Fertiliser, fuel, and other necessities to produce wheat, for instance, are often imported and paid for in euros or dollars, and that cost is passed on to bakeries.
DSC03179.jpg
Engineer Mustafa Umit Ikinmez inspects production at the Istanbul Halk Ekmek factory in Istanbul’s Kartal neighbourhood [Umar Farooq/Al Jazeera]
Nama said the municipality purchases flour up to eight months in advance, to keep ahead of inflation. But the price of flour, he says, has rocketed from 127 liras ($8.95) for a 50kg (110 pounds) bag near the start of the year, to 350 liras ($24.67) today.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

RELATED​

MORE FROM ECONOMY​

MOST READ​



Click to expand...

Iran’s inflation rate is among the world’s highest and has soared by nearly 60 percent since 2018.

Iran Inflation Rate

Inflation Rate in Iran decreased to 31.20 percent in September from 31.60 percent in August of 2024. This page provides the latest reported value for - Iran Inflation Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey...
tradingeconomics.com tradingeconomics.com
 
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Iran is slowly collapsing. I'm sure Biden will try and save them, but the people won't see any of the money. It will go to Hamas, PIJ, Hezbollah, Houthis etc.
I see the IRGC cried so hard about the beheading thread that it got removed.
 
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Iran's government is trying their level best in becoming a third world country from second world.
 
. .
. . . . .
SilentEagle said:
Iran is a bankrupted failed state soon they will collapse due to embargoes.


Thrid world country from second world? 😂😂 it's a good achievement keep it up Iran soon you will become a real third world country 😄

Iran is like afganistan with electricity 😄😄


Atleast Turkiye has a real developed economy unlike your iranian economy which consists of 99% oil export and 1% pistacho's 😂
Click to expand...
Sounds like you are not only stupid but also have lack of basic information...I see all the Jews cheering up for you so that tells me you may even be a Turkish Jew..

Iran is the first Trillion dollars GDP country in the region..I guess someone with your lack of education (standing too long in bread lines) needs to find out what GDP is and if you can read basic economic data find out for yourself that your dear country GDP is.

Oh.. by the way two weeks ago, not being able to pay the gas bills by your so called "Developed" country Iran cut off gas flow and your President for life called Iran begging Iran to restore the flow of Gas (they called it tech problem not to further embbarras your country )..so that tells you something about the state of Economy in your beloved 60% inflation bread line no money to pay bills country..

I include this picture so you can find Iran and Your country since I am not sure you can understand figures and numbers may be pictures will help you.
1644367392554.png
 
Last edited:
.
aryobarzan said:
Sounds like you are not only stupid but also have lack of basic information...I see all the Jews cheering up for you so that tells me you may even be a Turkish Jew..

Iran is the first Trillion dollars GDP country in the region..If guess someone with your lack of education (standing too long in bread lines) needs to find out what GDP is and if you can read basic economic data find out for yourself that your dear country GDP is.

Oh.. by the way two weeks ago, not being able to pay the gas bills by your so called "Developed" country Iran cut off gas flow and your President for life called Iran begging Iran to restore the flow of the Gas (they called it tech problem not to further embbarras your country )..so that tells you something about the state of Economy in your beloved 60% inflation bread line no money to pay bills country..

I include this picture so you can find Iran and Your country since I am not sure you can understand figures and numbers may be pictures will help you.
View attachment 814050
Click to expand...
I didn't even read your shit, i know for a fact my hometown in Turkiye is filled with thousands of Iranian refugees who want to leave to europe due to your backward and broke regime. But iran is stronkkkk!
 
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SilentEagle said:
I didn't even read your shit, i know for a fact my hometown in Turkiye is filled with thousands of Iranian refugees who want to leave to europe due to your backward and broke regime. But iran is stronkkkk!
Click to expand...
I suggest you F**ck off and go get lost in the hole you came from..
 
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