Hürriyet Daily News, Barçın Yinanç
Change is a must in Turkey’s education system, but recent sharp shifts could do more harm than good, Education Reform Initiative (ERI) director Batuhan Aydagül has told the Hürriyet Daily News in an exclusive interview.
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À L’école, de Nouveaux Programmes Islamonationalistes
Le Figaro(French), Delphine Minoui
Après la révision controversée des manuels scolaires concoctée par le gouvernement d’Erdogan, la rentrée scolaire s’appréhende avec inquiétude en Turquie. Read More
Deadly Turkish School Fire Reveals The Challenges Girls Face in Getting an Education
PRI, Pınar Ersoy
A fire at a Turkish girls dormitory that killed 11 students in late November has cracked open a debate in Turkey about controversial approaches to educating girls in rural areas, and whether the government is doing enough to monitor religious groups who increasingly are educating them.
What a Deadly Fire in a Turkish School Says About the Struggle to Educate Girls
Newsweek, Pınar Ersoy
Turkey has been in mourning since late November when a fire rampaged through a girls’ dormitory in Aladag, a town of 18,000 in Adana province of southeast Turkey. Eleven students and one teacher were killed, cracking open a debate in Turkey about controversial approaches to educating girls in rural areas, and whether the government is doing enough to monitor religious groups who increasingly are educating them.
Back to School
Today’s Zaman, Nicole Pope
Close to 18 million children are returning to school after what has been an unusually long summer break. As if the three months initially scheduled were not sufficient, the authorities decided to add an extra two weeks of vacation in a move apparently designed to support the struggling tourism industry. Read More
ERI Report: Students, Parents Prefer Private over State Schools.
Today’s Zaman
A report released by the Education Reform Initiative (ERI) of Sabancı university, based on the 2014-2015 academic year, has outlined that the demand for state schools in Turkey is diminishing, while there is an increase in demand for private schools. Read More
Prep Schools and Social Mobility
Today’s Zaman, Abdülkadir Civan
The Constitutional Court of Turkey has released its detailed ruling on the forced closure of prep schools, or dershanes.
Last year, the Turkish government passed legislation which would make it illegal to provide and to receive private tutoring services through the dershanes, effective Sept. 1, 2015 Read More
“FATİH Project Is a Failure Despite Promise to Revolutionize Public Education”
Today’s Zaman
Ali Osman Öztürk, an eighth-grader, has like many others, still not received the tablet PC that was to be given to all students as part of the Movement to Increase Opportunities and Technology (FATİH) project launched by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in 2012. Read More
The Battle For Turkey’s Education System
The demonstration, part of a nationwide boycott of classes called by groups including the Turkish teachers’ union Eğitim-Sen, had been ruled illegal by the government. Striking teachers faced disciplinary action and elsewhere police forcefully dispersed and detained protesters. But still they marched on. Read More
Turkish Parents Complain of Push Towards Religious Schools
The Guardian
When Itir Erhart, 39, wanted to enrol her daughter in primary school, she found that it was almost impossible to find somewhere that did not teach Sunni Islamic religion and Sunni religious practices.
“We are a non-religious family,” Erhart said. “I don’t want my child to learn about God in school.”
In the end, she had to turn to the private sector for fear that her daughter would be marked out as the only non-religious child in the class. “Religion has become so dominant in Turkish state culture that I was afraid my daughter would be completely marginalised. Read More