Spotlight: Summer time in winter causes headaches for students and others in Turkey

For Deniz Iscan and other students in Istanbul, going to school in the morning has been something unpleasant, since the country has opted to stay on summer time in winter.

"Going to school early in the morning is already something very difficult," bemoaned the 16-year-old.

The high school student has to get up at 6:30 and leave home before 7. "And now it is almost impossible to wake up on time. I'm always late for school," she complained.

Back in September, the Turkish authorities decided to continue the practice of daylight saving time all the year round "to make better use of daylight."

As a result, the clocks in Turkey were not set one hour back to winter time as usual on Oct. 30, when summer time ended throughout Europe.

Students who spoke to Xinhua all voiced their opposition to the new system, grumbling about going to school in the dark.

"It is not possible to identify whether we start the day or it is still midnight," said Suda Nil Meric, a girl aged 15.

Noting sunrise is seen only after the first class at around 8:30, she said, "Until then most of the students sleep on their desks."

Eight-year-old Aysegul Naz used to walk to school alone. But as the days get shorter, her mother has started to accompany her. "I'm a little afraid in the dark," she said.

Turkey is now three hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) under the new practice, which increases its time difference with Central European countries by two hours and three hours with England.

Most of the parents now prefer to take their early-school-age children to school by private cars or on foot.

"We give up using the school buses because the kids are not used to going out in the dark without their parents," said Burak Coskun, a father of two. "We also don't trust the drivers."

Gamze Siriner, who has a six-year-old son, tweeted, "I am now very much worried for my son when he goes out for school at 6 o'clock each morning at a time which is as dark as pitch."

As a matter of fact, public outcry across the country has been growing each day as the days get shorter.

A campaign was launched lately on social media with a view to making the complaints heard by the authorities and then turning the clocks an hour back. It became a hot topic on Twitter on Wednesday.

Most have expressed their misgivings about the negative psychological effects on workers and students, as they wake up in the dark and go home at dark as well.

The number of supporters for the campaign has hit 40,000, the Hurriyet daily said.

"We don't know anymore whether we live in Antarctic or in Turkey," Suat Demirel tweeted. "It is as if we live on a six-month-day six-month-night basis."

"Yes, we should admit that the new system is something that can affect the psychology of students," Betul Baykal Dinc, a family consulter and sociologist, told Xinhua.

"People and mostly students now suffer chronic early-morning tardiness," she said, arguing that they have to go to bed early in the evening and get less pleasure from life.

She opposed, however, the idea of resuming winter time in the middle of winter, saying setting the clocks one hour back now would confuse people even more.

Ahmet Duran Sahin, head of the Meteorology Department with Istanbul Technical University, argued in an article that the country is in a position to overcome the difficulties caused by the time differences.

In his view, the use of summer time all the year round is expected to save Turkey 30 MW of electricity.

In addition, the new move will put the consumers and power plants in an advantageous position, as there will be no production in between 17:00-22:00 (as opposed to winter time practice) when the electricity price is generally at its premium.

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has entered the fray as well.

On Tuesday, lawmakers from the party filed a question in parliament, drawing attention to the negative effects of holding on to summer time in winter on the economy and the time differences with European countries.

"Due to the time inconsistency with Europe, there will be 13 billion dollars of loss in Turkey's export," Turkish media said, quoting the CHP's argument.

According to Baris Yarkadas, a CHP deputy from Istanbul, the new application in time will cause many more problems with Europe in the fields of sport, tourism, transportation and health.

Some, though, love to see daylight before leaving office in winter.

"I'm actually very happy to go out of the office before it gets really dark at around 6 o'clock," said Tamer Sen, an academician from the central Anatolian city of Eskisehir.

"Even a half-an-hour day light, after work, increases my motivation," Sen said. Endit