Turkey’s education system is failing

[blondeturkish]

MEHMET Y. YILMAZ

myy@hurriyet.com.tr


Turkey’s education system is failing

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Once more, the bitter fact that our education system is undergoing a total collapse has struck our faces like a slap.

According to recent reports, the 27,863 candidates who sat for an aptitude test to become math teachers were only able to answer an average of nine questions correctly out of 50.

Physics teachers were able to answer an average of 15 questions correctly out of 50. Chemistry teachers were able to answer an average of 17 questions correctly out of 50.

You might say these are only candidates, and the many who failed the test will not become teachers anyway. But don’t be so optimistic. In another exam organized by the Education Ministry to fill vacant deputy principal positions in schools, out of 54,611 teachers who took the test 43,790 scored about 5 percent success rates on questions in Turkish, the history of the Turkish Republic revolution, and general culture.

Last year, 32,000 of the students who sat the Higher Education Entrance Exam (YGS) were not able to answer even one question correctly. A quarter of all the students who took the test were only able to score an average of 3.6 out of 10.

Meanwhile, according to the latest PISA results, out of 72 countries Turkey is in 49th place in mathematics. In science, we are 52nd. In comprehension, we are 50th. Overall, we have fallen around 10 places in three years.

All of this shows that our education system has hit rock bottom. Of course, past governments are also responsible for this awful picture and for not producing a proper education policy. But it is fair to say that most of the blame should go to the current ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been ruling the country as a single party for 15 years.

So far six different AKP deputies have served as education ministers. Every one of them has tried to change the previous examination system. They have all tried to base education on religious foundations and to convert regular high schools and middle schools into vocational religious “imam-hatip” schools.

The system has now reached the point of total collapse. It is neither the teachers nor the students who are failing. It is nobody other than the education ministers who are failing.

 

[50cent]

All talented teachers were arrested by akp mafia. For fetophobia

 

[Syed Asif Bukhari]

what is pattern of examination in Turkey ? is it completely objective or subjective ? I have heard CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif introduced the MCQs pattern in examination from Turkish model .

 

[alwayspeace]

All talented teachers were arrested by akp mafia. For fetophobia

**** fetho and it's followers. I mean I hate them. I hate just PKK, FETHO, ISIS and other terrorist organizations. The best thing AKP have done that clean all fetomaniag in the state even it suported before.

 

[Deliorman]

@KediKesenFare, do you have any idea what are the numbers here for Turkey? I ask you because you are the user here who works nice with data and articles.

The things I read in this article (and for Turkey's educations in general) are scary to say the least... Why is the quality lowering with every year?

 

[KediKesenFare3]

The current situation of Turkey's education system and its efficiency is very difficult to evaluate. However, two indisputable fact stands out:

1. During the last 15 years of AKP rule Turkey's educations system has become much more efficient.


Closing the Gap in Turkey: Evidence of Improved Quality and Reduced Inequality in an Expanding Education System

Turkey’s remarkable economic growth over the last decade has been a much quoted success story. One often hears that the country trebled its per capita income, and has become the 16th largest economy in the world. One hears less often that this economic growth has been inclusive, accompanied by reduced poverty and expanded access to social services in health and education. And yet even these debates on expanded social services rarely move beyond quoting the headline numbers to look at the dynamics of change in the sector(s). This omission is unfortunate because the dynamics of change in the social sectors can be a harbinger for future progress. I want to draw the reader’s attention to the unheralded progress in the education sector.



Few issues are as controversial or hotly debated as education reform in Turkey. Most recently, controversy has surrounded the recent passage of the “4+4+4” law which has raised the number of years of compulsory education from 8 to 12 years. The new law implies revisiting the rules governing transitions from lower to upper secondary schools, the choice of curricula and schools available to students at different levels of education. Some controversies are as old as the republic, such as the role of religious education in the education system of a secular state, and these continue to generate much emotion, now within the context of the changes implied by the new law. Underpinning the latest incarnation of most of these controversies are differing views on the progress of the education sector in Turkey over the last decade.

Interestingly, the debate on education quality is short on empirics. The World Bank with Turkey’s Ministry of National Education, analyzed the latest PISA data for the country and found several interesting and encouraging results. In short, the system has expanded impressively, with net enrolment rate in secondary education jumping from under 50% in 2001-02 to over 67% now (girls enrolment has gone from 43% to over 66% in the same period), adding over 1.5 million students to the secondary school system. Data from PISA also tells us that this expansion has been accompanied by an overall improvement in PISA scores for 15 year olds of 20 points or more between 2003-2009 - equivalent to adding an additional half year of schooling to each student’s study period. Even more impressively, the improvement has come mostly from students from disadvantaged backgrounds. While a lot of work remains for the future, schools have become less segregated and inequality of access and educational performance had been reduced remarkably.

Our analysis finds that Turkey’s performance in PISA is higher than would be predicted, taking into consideration its level of economic development and income. At around 450, Turkey’s PISA scores in reading, math, and science are better than average, when its level of GDP per capita is taken into account. The average PISA score of Turkish students in 2009 was approximately 10 points above that predicted by its income level. This performance looks even more impressive once the socioeconomic level of students, as well as the level of per capita GDP, is taken into account. By factoring this in, Turkey achieves almost 70 PISA points above average. In fact, in these terms, Turkey’s performance is nearly the highest among the 65 participating countries, on par with Korea or Singapore.

The increasing quality of education accompanied by reduced inequality in student performance has contributed to Turkey’s comparatively strong results in PISA. The country’s scores in the three PISA disciplines (reading, math, and science) increased sharply by 20 points or more between 2003 and 2009. At the same time, inequalities in student performance have decreased as these gains in PISA scores have come overwhelmingly from low and medium performers. For example, the performance of the bottom 1 percent of the cohort has gone up by 30 points in reading, 33 points in math, and 25 points in science; the performance of high-achievers has, on average, also improved, although by less than that of the lower performers. During the same period, the enrollment rate of 15-year-olds has grown by a strong 7.8 percent per year according to PISA, which makes these improvements even more remarkable.

While improvements in educational outcomes have, in part, resulted from the general increase in living standards (hence better overall opportunities for the new generation), increased effectiveness in the delivery of education has also played a significant role. Thus, the socioeconomic status of each student’s family mattered less for his or her PISA results in 2009 than it did in 2003. Our analysis shows that PISA score for students in the lower socio-economic quintiles improved much more markedly than for students in the top quintile. This is because the delivery of education services has become more effective in the period between these PISA tests - improving the schooling provided to almost all Turkish students and thereby reducing inequalities.

Despite these successes, some challenges still remain. The performance of Turkey’s average 15-year-old is still one full year (or 40 PISA points) behind the OECD average and a student’s socio-economic background remains a far more important determinant of educational outcomes in Turkey, than it does in other OECD countries. Around 25 percent of the Turkish 15-year-olds do not read well enough to be able to analyze and understand what they are reading and are therefore considered by the OECD to be “functionally illiterate.” However, this rate has been declining at a fast pace since 2003, when the equivalent proportion was 36 percent. Results and data from the 2012 round of PISA are expected in December 2013, and will allow for a more detailed analysis of progress made since 2009. Continued analysis of educational performance data should help shed light on Turkey’s ongoing educational debates and will hopefully contribute to greater consensus on what policies are needed to help the country fully close the remaining gap to reach the standards of the world’s leading education performers like Korea, Singapore or Finland.

We discussed options for the future at a recent conference on education in Turkey that was jointly hosted by the World Bank and the Turkish Ministry of National Education. Will Turkey sustain or even accelerate recent gains and what measures might contribute most to this? I look forward to hearing your views online.
-> http://blogs.worldbank.org/educatio...reduced-inequality-expanding-education-system

2. It is true that right now the quality, effectiveness and performance of the education system in Turkey is stagnating.

To sum up, neither the anti-AKP faction nor AK-fanboys are right when it comes to a fair assessment of the current education system in Turkey.

On a scale of 1 (= poor) to 10 (=very good), I would assign an overall rating of 5,75 - 6,00 to AKP.

On the other hand, some studies imply that Turkey's educational output is middle-rate internationally if we include the expenditure per student into the final scores.

We aren't really bad but neither good. We stuck somewhere in the middle.

 

[Saithan]

well, I think that is related to the political climate, you don't get only good things, but bad stuff are also voted through the parliament. I think it's interesting that this analysis is for 2003-2009, how does the development look from 2009-2017 on same criterias ?