The Turkish Educational System
Formal education in Turkey, which is governed by the Ministry of National Education (www.meb.gov.tr), includes pre-school education, primary education and secondary education.
The Council of Higher Education (YOK, www.yok.gov.tr) is responsible for the planning, coordination and supervision of higher education.
Turkish primary education is compulsory for every Turkish citizen from the age of six to the age of fourteen, regardless of sex, and is free of charge in state schools. In 1997, the duration of compulsory primary education was extended from five to eight years. Prior to 1997, primary education comprised five years of primary school (İlkokul) and three years of middleschool, or junior high school (Ortaokul). After completion of the fifth year the Primary School Diploma (İlkokul Diploması) was awarded, and the Middle School Diploma (Ortaokul Diploması) was awarded at the end of the three-year middle school education. These two diplomas have since been combined and replaced by a single diploma, the Primary Education Diploma (Ilkogretim Diploması), to be awarded to those students who successfully complete the 8 year basic education program.
The basic education program includes Turkish language and literature, mathematics, social studies, science, civics and human rights, the history of the Turkish Republic and Atatürk's reforms, a foreign language (English, French or German), individual and group activities, religious culture and ethics, art/handicraft, music, physical education, traffic safety and first aid, career guidance, and elective courses. In primary schools, students are graded on a scale of 1-5 (maximum), with 2 being the minimum passing grade (equivalent to 45/100).
The secondary education system can be classified as General High Schools (Düz Lise), and Vocational and Technical High Schools (Meslek Lisesi). Until 2005-2006, secondary education was three years but now the duration is four years.
The different kinds of high schools of the Turkish education system include:
- General High Schools,
- Public High Schools (Standard Education),
- Anatolian High Schools, which provide lessons in a selected foreign language (English, German or French. Successful students who are determined by tests during primary education may be enrolled.
- Anatolian Fine Arts High Schools
- Anatolian Religious High Schools (Imam-Hatip) which have the same curriculum as Anatolian High Schools with lessons on religion
- Science High Schools focusing on science education;n Private High Schools, which are established by private enterprises. Private High schools are referred as “colleges” (kolej) and they offer at least one foreign language
- Vocational High Schools, focus on a certain type of profession (such as Tourism Vocational High Schools, Industrial Vocational High Schools,and Electrical Vocational High Schools)When students complete the 9th grade, they choose one of four tracks: Turkish language–Mathematics, Mathematics–Science, Social Sciences,and Languages.
At the end of high school, following the 12th grade,students take the National University Entrance Examination (OSS - www.osym.gov.tr) to continue their studies at a university or a two year school. Although students can take the test and try to get placed in any major, practically speaking, they opt to select a major related to their track in high school. The reason for this is hat they lose points if they apply for a field different than their track. Exam scores are weighted to provide students in each track with different opportunities when entering higher education, as follows:
- Turkish language–Mathematics: International Relations, Law, Education, Psychology, Economy, Business Management, and so on.
- Mathematics–Science: Engineering, Computer Science, Medicine, and other Science related professions.
- Social Sciences: History, Geography, and Education.
- Languages: Language/Linguistics and language teaching.
In Science High Schools only the Science track is offered. Upon graduation from high schools the students attain a high school diploma, “lise diploması”.Secondary School students are graded on a scale of 0-5 (maximum) with 0 and 1 being a failing grade and 2 through 5 being passing grades.The following subjects are a part of the core curriculum at all secondary schools:
- Turkish Language and Literature
- Religious Culture and Ethics
- History
- Geography
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Health
- Foreign
- Language
- Physical
- Education
- Military Science
- History of the Turkish Revolution and the Reforms of Atatürk
- Philosophy
Special education is currently provided for the following groups of children and young people:
- The visually impaired,
- The hearing impaired,
- The orthopedically impaired,
- The chronically ill.
Provisions are being made for impaired students to study at regular schools along with unimpaired children of the same age. Efforts are underway to expand this program of educational integration.
HIGHER EDUCATION
- Higher education institutions in Turkey fall into three categories:
- Universities,
- Military and police colleges and academies,
- Vocational schools affiliated with ministries.
There is a tuition fee for higher education. However, successful students who lack the financial means to continue their education are provided with full support by private individuals and organizations, as well as by the state. The university is the principal higher education institution. There are 94 public and 38 foundation universities in Turkey. The university possesses academic autonomy and a public legal personality. It is responsible for carrying out high level educational activities, scientific research and publications. It is made up of faculties (group of departments rather than jsut instructors as in the American usage of the term), graduate schools, schools of higher education, conservatories, two-year vocational training schools and centers for applied work and research.
A faculty is a higher education unit which is responsible for high level education, as well as for scientific research and publications. Units such as departments, schools of higher education, etc., may be affiliated with a faculty.
A graduate school or institute in a university or faculty is concerned with graduate study, scientific research and applied studies in more than one related subject area.
A school of higher education is an institution which is mainly concerned with offering instruction directed towards a specific vocation. Examples are the School of Home Economics affiliated with Ankara University and the School of Foreign Languages within Boğaziçi University. A conservatory is a higher education institution which concentrates on training artists in the fields of music and the performing arts.
A two-year vocational training school is a higher education institution established for the purpose of providing vocational education to meet the practical needs of various fields.
Anadolu University offers two-and four year programs through distance education. This program has been greatly expanded in recent years, although entry still remains competitive.
Graduate-level programs consist of masters and doctoral programs, coordinated by institutes for graduate studies.
Medical specialty training programs equivalent to doctoral level programs are carried out within the faculties of medicine and the training hospitals are owned by the Ministry of Health (Sağlık Bakanlığı) and the Social Insurance Organization (Sosyal Sigortalar Kurumu, SSK).
As mentioned above, admission to higher education is centralized and based on the nation-wide examination administrated by the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) within the Higher Education Council every year.The placement of candidates is based upon their composite scores. These scores are calculated by taking into account the high school grade-point averages with different weights.In 2008, 1,574,000 candidates took the Entrance Exam. 265,230 were placed in undergraduate and 239,853 were placed in two year programs. The exam is extremely selective and takes place once a year in the second or third weekend in June.
The system is subject to change depending on the views of the administrations and might therefore be administered in two parts or one depending on the year.
Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Veterinary Education are all undergraduate programs in which technical education starts from day one. The general structure of the Turkish education system is summarized in this chart.
