Opposition seeks annulment for private tutoring ban

'The closing of the private tutoring centres which will result in 40 thousand layoffs within the Ministry of Education is unconstitutional," said Akif Hamzacebi, the deputy chief of parliamentary group of the Republican People's Party.

The Constitutional Court is the country's highest. Its decisions are final and cannot be amended.

"The proper thing to do is to change the national education system so that our students will not need these centres," Hamzacebi said. "This is real reform."

Private tutoring centres have been highly popular in Turkey for more than 10 years among the students preparing for high school and university entrance exams.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the state schools would provide extra tutoring to students for free on weekends. On March 12, President Abdullah Gul ratified the law, which will allow these private centres to operate until September 1, 2015, before being converted into conventional private schools by June 2019.

Hamzacebi said the closing of these centres is a violation the article on freedom of enterprise in the Turkish constitution, which says everyone is free to establish businesses.

A substantial number of these centres are run by a movement led by Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled Islamic preacher living in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

Gulen is accused of masterminding an illegal group nestled within key institutions of the state, such as the police and the judiciary.