What a Deadly Fire in a Turkish School Says About the Struggle to Educate Girls

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.

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Back to School

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

Prep Schools and Social Mobility

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

Turkish Parents Complain of Push Towards Religious Schools

Turkish Parents Complain of Push Towards Religious Schools

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