Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Education in Turkey Part 2


I found this great quote from Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey. I would like to start off with this post with this quote:
  
“Milletleri kurtaranlar, yalniz ve ancak öğretmenlerdir” “Teachers are the one and only people who save nations” 

This post will have two parts. The first will go into more detail of the impacts of the 1997 law which extended the period of compulsory education of Turkey’s children to eight years. The second half of the post will look at the new compulsory education law which was passed in April 2012, its changes to Turkey’s educational system, controversy, and its potential impacts.

While the 1997 Basic Education Law has not been around for very long and there is a limited number of studies evaluating its impact – the problem being that this reform is relatively recent, which limits the ability to conduct a decent assessment of its impact on the quality of education in Turkey. However, the World Bank together with the Turkish Ministry of Education looked at the state of education in Turkey as shown by data collected by PISA testing. PISA is the Programme for International Student Testing, conducted by the OECD, evaluating educational attainment in both member and non-member countries, by looking at the performance of 15 year olds in math, science, and reading. 

The analysis has found that enrollment of 15 year old students in Turkey rose from 50% in 2001-02 to 67% in 2009. If one looks at just female 15 year old students in the same years, enrollment rose from 43% to 66%. Turkey added approximately 1.5 million students to its rolls in secondary schools. PISA data also shows that children of disadvantaged backgrounds improved at a higher rate than students of privileged backgrounds. This means that access to universal education supports disadvantaged in succeeding academically and economically. Furthermore, analysts have found that socio-economic background has become less important in 2009 than in 2003, meaning that basic universal education could potentially reduce socio-economic inequality in the next generation. 

The differences between the 1997 Basic Education Law and the 2012 “4+4+4” law include: the 2012 law expands compulsory education to 12 years from 8 years as mandated in 1997, the 2012 law now allows parents to choose whether to send their kids to religious schools (called Imam Hatip schools), and lowers the age apprenticeship from 15 to 11 years old.

The 2012 “4+4+4” reform, divides a child’s educational career into three parts; elementary, middle, and high school. The 1997 reform eliminated the middle school and mandated that the eight compulsory years of schooling be in the same school. The 2012 reform also brings back the option for parents to enroll their kids in vocational or religious classes prior to the 9th grade (at the age of 15) back to the 5th grade (at the age of 10/11).  Critics of the new law say that the 5th grade is too early for children to leave a basic curriculum in favor of a more specialized one, be it religious or vocational. This law could lead some parents to pull their daughters out of school permanently in favor of the religious schooling, an option offered by the 2012 law.

Furthermore, the “4+4+4” reform may potentially handicap students from urban poor and rural parts of Turkey, since students must compete to enter high school by taking standardized exams. By opening up an option withdrawing from a basic curriculum in favor of religious or vocational training in the 5th grade, those students will not have the educational background to compete with their colleagues on high school entrance exams. By choosing vocational or religious classes at such an early age, children are locked into a vocation without the ability to change their minds about their professional future. 

Lastly, one can also debate the issue of informed consent. Is a child as young as 10 or 11 really mature enough to make a decision about their educational and professional future? I believe children that young are not mentally equipped to make informed decisions, then is it up to the parents or the state to make the decision? While this is a separate discussion, it is important to mention this issue.   

While young Turks are enrolling and staying in school in greater numbers, Turkey can still has room to dramatically improve student performance. According to Guven Sak, a columnist for the Hurriyet Daily News and head of the Ankara-based Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), Turkey’s population still “… has only 6.5 years of schooling on average.” According to the same PISA test results discussed earlier, Turkey placed 32nd among 34 OECD countries and 40% on Turkey’s 15 year old students are not able to obtain basic competence level in mathematical literacy. So, educational reform is necessary for the benefit of Turkey’s children. The type of educational reform that is necessary for Turkey is a far more difficult question to answer.

The 2012 educational reform law was passed in Turkey’s parliament after street protests, fist-fights between opposing politicians, and severe criticism from teachers. Time will show how this new education law will impact Turkey’s educational system.



Sources: 

Cameron-Moore, Simon “Feature - Turkish school reforms raise debate on Islamism,” Reuters, 20 March 2012. Can be found at the following address: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/uk-turkey-education-idUKBRE82J0GB20120320 

Cameron – Moore, Simon “Turkey passes school reform law viewed by critics as Islamic,” Al Arabiya, 30 March 2012. Can be found at the following address: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/30/204265.html

 Finkel, Andrew “What’s 4+4+4?” The New York Times,” 23 March 2012. Can be found at the following address: http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/turkeys-education-reform-bill-is-about-playing-politics-with-pedagogy/?_r=1 

Mocan, Leyla “The Impact of Education on Wages: Analysis of an Education Reform in Turkey,” Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, 24 February 2013. Can be found at the following address: http://www.aefpweb.org/sites/default/files/webform/LMocan_AEFPPaper.pdf 

Naqvi, Naveed Hassan “Closing the Gap in Turkey: Evidence of Improved Quality and Reduced Inequality in an Expanding Education System” The World Bank, 17 July 2013. Can be found at the following address: http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/closing-gap-turkey-evidence-improved-quality-and-reduced-inequality-expanding-education-system

Nihan Köseleci Blanchy & Aytuğ Şaşmaz, “PISA 2009: Where does Turkey Stand?” Turkish Policy. Can be found at the following address: http://www.turkishpolicy.com/dosyalar/files/nihan_aytug.pdf 

Sabral, Jody “New Education Bill Revives Koran Studies In Turkish Schools” Al-Monitor, 16 May 2012. Can be found at the following address:  http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/turkish-education-reform-passed.html##ixzz2nlnkEFkv

Schliefer, Yigal “Turkey: Proposed Education Reform Bill Gets Failing Grade,” EurasiaNet,  27 February 2012. Can be found at the following address: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65058

“Turkey police break up education bill protest,” Al Jazeera, 28 march 2012. Can be found at the following address: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/03/201232920153676163.html 

“Turkish MPs fight as controversial schools bill passed” BBC, 31 March 2012. Can be found at the following address: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17571131

Zapata, Julianne, et. al.“Education Policy Outlook: Turkey,” Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, http://www.oecd.org/edu/EDUCATION%20POLICY%20OUTLOOK%20TURKEY_EN.pdf


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