Amongst OECD countries, the case of Turkey is of paramount interest. With 30% of the population aged under 14, 10.5 million pupils enrolled in primary education, a rapid migration from rural to urban areas and a high fertility rate the Turkish educational system is facing big challenges in the coming years. This presentation starts analyzing the structural transformation that Turkish educational system encountered in the last century, and then it investigates what are the most pressing issues for the students and for the governance of the educational system and tries to understand how institutions could adapt to better cope with the present challenges.
4. In 2010: 19.5 million students - all
level (primary education 10.5 million )
67 000 educational institutions
710 900 teaching personnel
99 % students in publicly managed
schools (OECD 2009)
Turkey’s population is 67.803.927
of which
30% aged under 14
Turkey at a glance
GDP per province
6. Private spending on education
Primary to non-tertiary / Tertiary, % of GDP, 2012
Source: Education at a glance: Educational finance indicator
Public spending on education
Primary to non-tertiary / Tertiary, % of GDP, 2012
Source: Education at a glance: Educational finance indicators
A comparison of Private and Public Spending on Education
7. Liberalization
Structural transformation of Turkish Education
Ottoman period
(prior to 1923)
Modernization
(1923-1950)
Democracy
and turmoil
(1950-1980)
Dualized and
religion based
Centralization
Secularization
Literacy
Deterioration
Less investment
Dichotomies in
state and
education (1980-
2001)
Neoliberal
transformations
(2001- present)
Politicization
Nationalism
Basic
Education
Reform 1997
Law Unification
of Education, No.
430 in 1924.
Reform
2012
4+4+4
Marketization
Less investment
8. Education to building a nation-state
“Turkification”
● Law of unification of the Education
Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanonu -
paradigm of centralized
bureaucracy
● End of traditional religious school
● New Alphabet
● Coeducation
● Turn Madrases into University
● Curriculum - from Religion to
Nationalism
“Schools are obliged to indoctrinate
loyalty to the Republican principles”
Circular issued by the Ministry of
Education on 19 December 1923
Kemalist Modernization (1923-1950)
9. “Neoliberal transformation” (2001- present) - Marketization
● Revision of curriculum (i.e. more Koran courses)
● Privatization of school services and management
● Total quality Management and performance
assessment
● Abolishment law banishing religious education
● Tutoring institution dershane 1,2 mln. students
The growth of Islamic Education. Imam-Hatip schools*
77.000 students in 2001, 198.000 in 2010.
Law No. 6287(Mar. 30, 2012)
İLKÖĞRETİM VE EĞİTİM KANUNU (4+4+4)
10. Low Investment in Education
● Budget has grown
three times in 10 years.
● Stable investment.
● Share of investment
from 17% to 6% of
MoNE budget
● Roughly 1 million
student added every
year
11. Structural Challenges
● Centralization
● High Birth Rate. With raising
mandatory schooling, increased
infrastructure demand (Quality vs.
Quantity).
● Historical East-West divide.
● Minorities and religious group
demanding education (Kurds).
● Urbanisation. Entry and Exit ratios.
Historical misforecast:
“As a result, 72% of total school buildings are located in
villages, however only 27% of students today live in villages.”
*In Iris Rotberg (ed.) Global Education Reform: Balancing Change and Tradition,
Chapter 7, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2004, pp. 153-186
13. A system in which inequalities start at an early age (1)
● A low enrollment rate : one of the lowest among the OECD countries
14. A system in which inequalities start at an early age (2)
● A low enrollment rate linked to the socioeconomic status
● Promote a multi-sectoral approach
15. Secondary education : a highly selective system
● A strong connection between the secondary and tertiary
education entrance and the socioeconomic status of the students
● The chance of success is more connected to the capability of
parents to pay for private tutoring
● A large disinterest over the high school curriculum
16. Disconnected with the labour market (1)
● A necessity to improve VET to meet the new development spheres
in the economy
● To stop the loss of students at the transition points
● A “qualification” curriculum to communicate to the students the
basic expectations from the labour market
19. The education system is highly centralized
. Decision-making is still very much
central, although Turkey has delegated
autonomy since 1998 (94% of decisions taken
at the central level, OECD).
. Structure:
MONE: curriculum, planning, teacher
placement and compensation
Provinces: supervision of implementation,
partial authority on teacher placement and
funds allocation (Village Schools initiative)
School: management of facilities, teacher
evaluation
. Turkey aims to change that structure,
and is willing to delegate more power
20. In reality, autonomy is limited
. Rigid guidelines or granting of autonomy on secondary matters:
2011 Interviews with district governors: “All the details are regulated by directives and circulars, which makes
taking initiatives more difficult for us.”; “We are not given enough authority, we cannot take initiatives and there is an
authority conflict.”; “We cannot fire those with poor performance. Legal regulations do not allow us to do so, since
performance criteria are not defined. Even if such people are fired, they come back to their posts by court decision.”
Similarly at the school level, autonomy in budgetary allocation was limited to technical aspects (maintenance,
equipment).
. Local needs are determined by central authorities (incl. teacher allocation)
. Additionally, responsibility at the central level is unclearly defined, exacerbating inefficiencies
MONE has 6 Departments: Secondary Education; Technical Education for Girls; Technical Education for Boys; Trade
and Tourism Education; Apprenticeship and Non-formal Education; and Apprenticeship, Vocational and Technical Education
Development and Expansion. School administrators and district governors describe limited capacity to act towards a
better use of resources as a consequence of this organisational chart.
21. Could greater autonomy increase performance?
The impacts of autonomy are related to
the performance level of the system, and
the level of development of the country.
If implemented with insufficient
capacities on the ground, an increase in
autonomy could increase disparities and
have a negative effect on performance,
especially for autonomy regarding
academic content.
Turkey must first reform its teaching
workforce, and develop the leadership
and managerial capacities of its
administrators before a delegation of
authority regarding resource utilisation
and personnel management can take
place.
Strengths : willingness to reform education, culture of assessment,
coherence with MONE objectives
22. Example of a successful reformer: Poland
. Before the 1999 reform, a centralized system
. Delegation of school management to local
authorities with school directors as
pedagogical supervision -without reducing the
budgets
. Longer compulsory general education,
national assessment, core curriculum and
national standards, reform of teachers’
education and promotion
. Increase in PISA performance (avg. of 470 in
2000, and 520 in 2012), and reduction of
inequalities
24. A Unique Professional Workforce
● Some positives:
○ Student-teacher relations amongst highest
in the OECD
○ Teachers demonstrate high levels of
cooperation and professional collaboration
(such as team teaching)
● Turkey has the youngest
professional teaching workforce in
the OECD
○ 61% of primary and 76% lower secondary
teachers are under the age of 40
○ 18% of teachers have only 2 years of work
experience as compared to the OECD
average of 8% while only 12% of teachers
have 20+ years of working experience as
compared to the OECD average of 36%
25. Teachers are Unhappy
● Teachers report below-average levels
of satisfaction
○ Teachers salaries have doubled over the
past decade yet still remain seriously under
the OECD average ($25, 189 vs $33,136)
● Teaches generally dislike the system
of evaluation
○ used to ensure quality in terms of
compliance with central regulations rather
than for student improvement
○ Few incentives in place for teachers who
receive high marks on evaluations and few
repercussions for those who receive low
marks
○ A substantial proportion of teachers either
strongly disagreed (12%) or disagreed (28%)
that the appraisal and feedback was fair
(TALIS average: 4.4% and 12.4% respectively)
26. Teachers are Unprepared
● Career development
opportunities are lacking.
According to TALIS 2009:
○ 75% of all teacher reported training
in the previous 18 months (TALIS
Average = 89%)
○ 83% of teachers did not receive
compensation during development
training (TALIS average = 63%)
○ 43% of teachers are in schools
where the principal reports that
lack of pedagogical preparation is a
factor hindering instruction a lot or
to some extent (TALIS average =
27. Teachers Feel Isolated
● Large proportion of new
teachers assigned to
disadvantaged schools in the
East of Turkey
○ Most teachers are arriving from
the West of Turkey and have
difficulty adjusting to the culture,
language, inclement weather and
being far from their families
○ There are no incentives to stay
and so most request a transfer
very quickly
○ Vicious circle of inequality
28. Administrators are not up to the challenge
● School principals tend towards a more
administrative style of school leadership
rather than an pedagogical approach
○ Spend the most of their time working on the budget
and allocating it
● Disconnected from teachers
○ 75% of students attend schools whose principals
reported that poor student-teacher relations hinder
learning and yet student-teacher relations are
amongst the highest in the OECD
○ Almost 25% of teachers worked in schools whose
school principal reported that they either never or
only sometimes reported the outcome of evaluations
to the teacher
● Lack of in-service training for school leaders
● Little community outreach
29. 1. Sustain urbanization to accelerate the
natural downturn of population growth.
Continue with national projects on sexual
education. (Puberty project).
2. Raise the share of investment in MoNE
budget. In order to prevent the undesirable
outcomes of privatization (i.e. worsening of
quality, loss of equality).
3. Provide specific resources to cope with East-
West and Urban-Rural divide.
Policy Recommendations: Structural
30. Policy Recommendations: Students
1. Improve and increase Early Childhood Education and Care
a. Establish as a priority access to quality ECEC for all children from three to five years old with a particular attention
to the children with special needs
b. Strengthen a multi-sectoral approach while recognising the strong relationship between women’s participation in
the labour market and the universal access to ECEC
c. Raise the public investment to implement obligation of compulsory education for children from three to five years
2. Change the examination used from primary to secondary education and from secondary education to
university; realign exams with the curriculum
a. The new examinations should be focused on students achievement and include an evaluation of competencies
related to the labour market.
b. Reset the examination system to take into account the large increase of the enrollment rate in primary education.
c. Raise the attention of students on their capacity to master competencies and subject matter rather than
examination preparation
3. Better prepare students to enter the job market or higher education
a. Implement a new secondary curriculum in order to prepare the students to enter into the labour market and/or
into higher education
b. Design a “qualification” framework to implement the basic expectations regarding skills, knowledges and
competencies to enter into the labour market
c. Raise the involvement of professionals in the development of the qualifications and standards required for each
field
31. Policy Recommendations: Governance
1. Identify the needs and resources
a. Renewed effort in school mapping so as to precisely identify needs and resources.
b. Development of provincial strategies by provincial MONE directors, in coordination with district level governors.
c. Develop the leadership capacities of school principals and local administration, encourage district-level
communication between schools.
2. Streamline and clarify the chain of authority, and legibly allocate responsibilities
a. Reorganisation of MONE into a unitary structure
b. Development of a framework for the delegation of authority. Interlocutors and responsibilities should be clearly
defined for the delegation of authority to the provincial, district and school level to function.
c. Development of a clear system of indicators to assess achievement and utilisation of resources
3. Increase autonomy and accountability at the provincial, district and school level for
resource utilisation and improvement contingent on development of capacities
a. Delegation of authority and responsibility to provincial MONE directors in elaboration of a strategy to improve
achievement and utilisation of resources.
b. Redefine the functions of administrators and inspectors to reflect the focus on school autonomy - monitoring of
school performance rather than compliance
c. Delegation of authority and responsibility to the schools for quality improvement and efficiency in the use of
resources (both physical and human). This should include more responsibilities regarding the budget, but also
more flexibility for assignment of personnel.
32. Policy Recommendations: Institutions
1. Implement more programs designed to attract, develop and retain teachers
a. Increase quantity and quality of induction, career training and development programs
specifically aimed at new teachers
b. Provide greater support (ie. housing, language lessons, social activities a mentor program)
and monetary incentives to teachers in Eastern Turkey
2. Provide more in-service training for principals and school leaders
a. Increase pedagogical training so they are more connected to teachers, students and the
community
b. Train principals in order to prepare them to deal with both a current lack of material and
human resources as well as potential future of more school autonomy in a less
centralized system
3. Restructure the teacher evaluation system
a. Change focus of evaluation from that of compliance with the system to that of student
progress
b. Implement monetary or professional rewards for teachers who score high on evaluations
33. Policy Recommendations: Leadership Competences
1. Develop the leadership and strategic capacities of provincial and local administrators
a. Provide pre-service or in-service training for education administrators at the provincial and local level in
instructional leadership and management, and in strategic assessment of performance and planning
b. Develop advisory resources to support this professional transition
2. Develop the management and leadership capacities of school principals
a. Provide professional development for school principals in the areas of leadership, school-level planning,
budgeting and assessment.
b. Modify pre-service training of school principals to reflect the new responsibilities associated with a
future increase in autonomy.
c. Redefine recruitment requirements for the position of school principal, and emphasize applicants’
relevant managerial or leadership experiences and training
At all levels, planning and evaluating rests on the capacity of teachers to conduct classroom-level
assessments
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38. Democracy and Turmoil
(1950-1980)
Return of religious teaching to
school.
Nationalism in school curricula and
textbooks. (Communist threat)
Economic growth and
democratization of society in
policies.
Deterioration of education
Public support military to avoid anarchy
Increased centralization in the
education
Curriculum and textbooks become
nationalistic
MONE criticized for giving in to political
pressure.
Students needs and interest not
addressed
Growth of more private institutions
Dichotomies in education (1980-
2010)
