Abstract
The extension of compulsory education to 8 years in 1997 had ignited long overdue education reforms in Turkey. Reforms have gained even more momentum during the last decade thanks to political and financial stability. Education was restructured, new infrastructure was built, more funding was allocated thanks to economic growth and compulsory education was extended to 12 years. While progress has been achieved in increasing access and improving learning outcomes, serious challenges exist, especially for further improving quality and ensuring equity.
The author wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Alper Dinçer, Aytuğ Şaşmaz, Betül Keleş, Çiğdem Tongal, Işık Tüzün, Işıl Oral, and Yaprak Sarıışık. The opinions expressed here are solely his.
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Notes
- 1.
Executive Order No. 652, adopted on September 2011.
- 2.
Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV) in Turkey had conducted a major public campaign titled “7 is too late” to promote early childhood education.
- 3.
Other provinces are Ağrı, Şırnak, Gaziantep, Mardin, and Batman.
- 4.
The Ministry of Family and Social Policies is a new ministry, established in 2010 by the AK Party government.
- 5.
“Basic Determinants of Attendance and Non-Attendance in Primary Education in Turkey,” research carried out under the partnership of ERI with UNICEF and the Ministry of National Education (research report forthcoming).
- 6.
Mine Yıldırım is a researcher in human rights law with particular expertise in the international protection of freedom of religion or belief. She is expected to be granted her PhD degree from Abo Akademi’s (Finland) Institute for Human Rights Law in 2012.
- 7.
TALIS research was conducted with a randomized sample of 200 primary school principals and 4,000 branch teachers in these schools.
- 8.
The establishment of the Vocational Qualifications Institute in 2007 has been instrumental in facilitating private sector’s contribution, especially in development of programs and curriculum. There were also other examples of public-private partnerships in education, most notably the “Vocational Education: A Crucial Matter for Nation” project and public campaign undertaken by the Koç Holding, one of Turkey’s biggest conglomerates.
- 9.
For further explanation, see Education Monitoring Report 2011.
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Aydagül, B. (2013). Turkey: Translating New Policy Paradigms to Results. In: Wang, Y. (eds) Education Policy Reform Trends in G20 Members. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38931-3_12
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