Education in the midst of multiple crises
Education in Turkey has had a problematic and debated year on a scale ranging from basic principles to the physical conditions of schools, from goals to the multi-layered effects of the economic crisis. Moreover, the impact of each topic to be mentioned has the power to spread over the long term. As the end of the year approaches, a few reports published in this regard reveal the gravity. Statistics further clarify what is visible to the naked eye.
Founded in 2003, the Education Reform Initiative (ERI) is a non-governmental organisation that produces data with the aim of ensuring that every step taken in the field of education is child and public interest oriented. Since 2007, they have been evaluating the year with their Education Monitoring Reports. Their 2024 report focuses on ‘the short, medium and long-term effects of multiple crises on the education system’. One of the distinctive features of this year is that the number of children who are out of education despite being of compulsory education age is at the highest level of the last three years. Income inequality has reached its highest level in the last 18 years, signalling the severity of the economic crisis in education. 42 out of every 100 children are poor. ERG's report reveals that the number of students between the ages of 6-17 who are out of education increased by 38.4 per cent compared to the previous year.
The following data is interesting. When the factor of increasing commercialisation of education is added, the share of the top 20 percent of the income distribution in all education expenditures has become 42 times higher than that of the bottom 20 percent. This is a gap in itself, because the quality of education is determined by household income.
According to the report titled ‘Evaluation of Privatisation and Transformation in Educational Institutions through the Right to Education’ published by the Istanbul Planning Agency (IPA) in September 2024, for example, the rate of private primary schools in Istanbul, which was 17.93 percent in the 2012-2013 academic year, increased to 35.44 percent in the 2022-2023 academic year. According to this report, 46.2 percent of high schools in Turkey are private high schools; almost half of them. This rate rises to 68.10 per cent in Istanbul. In other words, with the 4+4+4 education system and the closure of regular high schools, those with money send their children to private schools, while the options for the rest are mostly imam hatip high schools and vocational high schools.
As children move away from education
ERI's report reveals that the number of students between the ages of 6-17 who are not in education increased by 38.4 per cent compared to the previous year. The largest group here is the 14-17 age group with 73.9 per cent. So much so that one out of every 10 16-year-olds and one out of every seven 17-year-olds are out of education. In the top-ranked provinces Muş, Ağrı and Gümüşhane, this means ‘one out of every three children’. This exclusion from education, of course, opens the door to labour and forced marriage at a young age. This is a greater risk for girls. For example, in Siirt, Bitlis and Ağrı, one out of every three 17-year-old girls is out of education.
On the other hand, to what extent the system in vocational education centres (MESEM), where students receive education one day a week and receive skills training in an enterprise for four or five days, is a part of formal education, and whether these children are not outright labourers is a matter of debate. When children out of education, those in open education high schools and MESEM students are combined, the number of children out of formal education suddenly jumps to 1 million 578 thousand 941. This is a very thought-provoking picture, one that requires getting to the root of the problem and finding solutions immediately.
In general, nothing seems to be getting better. Likewise, the total number of classrooms for the 2023-24 academic year has decreased. There are still no permanent solutions in the earthquake zone. Since the Ministry was unable to appoint permanent cleaning staff, the new academic year started in autumn with news about filthy schools. It was basically a time when parents were talking about school cleaning vigils...
It is estimated that 81.7 per cent of students do not have access to school meals in a period of crisis when poverty is deepening and widespread, which in these conditions means starvation as we know it.
The lawsuit filed by the Tuzluçayır Women's Solidarity Association against the Ministry of National Education to provide free and healthy school meals is significant. Ankara 3rd Administrative Court dismissed the case in March on the grounds that resources were limited and that the state had ‘no positive obligation to provide free meals to all children receiving education’.
The Turkish School Meal Coalition also recently published a report on their workshop titled ‘Free School Meals Now’. They shared the information that 418 million children worldwide have access to school meals. This coalition defends the main idea that school meals and, of course, drinking water, given how expensive it is, are not a favour, a temporary support or aid based on need, but a public right, a right of equal citizenship. This deprivation alone can often be the reason behind the increase in dropout rates from education. As the budget negotiations begin, the Turkish School Food Coalition demands that ‘all schools be provided with healthy water and food without discrimination, without ifs, buts or buts, and that Turkey make a commitment to join the International Food Coalition’.
‘Generations that will build the Turkish Century’
The academic year 2024 was a year in which structural changes in education were also discussed. The Education Model for the Turkish Century, which was shared with the public in April 2024, was approved in May despite the controversy it caused, and the model was gradually implemented. For example, while the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan set out the vision of ‘healthy and happy individuals ready for life’, the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan emphasised the goal of ‘generations that will build the Turkish Century’. This is a wish that is at once vague and ideologically clear. As the report points out, principles such as human rights, democracy, scientific thinking, innovation and professional ethics were hardly mentioned, while new values such as equality of opportunity, commitment to religion, morality and values, law and justice, and patriotism were added. The main emphasis became ‘national, spiritual and cultural values’.
The following should also be noted for all the topics mentioned. Although the right to quality education is guaranteed by international conventions, the data requested by ERI during the preparation of the report was not shared as of October 2024. However, all these conventions create accountability for states. This brings us to the topic ‘Law in the midst of multiple crises’.
