1. TURKISH EDUCATION SISTEM

2. Education In Turkey (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Education in Turkey is governed by a national system which was established in accordance with the Atatürk Reforms after the Turkish War of Independence. It is a state supervised system designed to produce a skillful professional class for the social and economic institutes of the nation.

3. Children are obliged to take 12 years of education between the ages of 6 and 18, and by 2001 enrollment of children in this age range was nearly 100%. For 14-18 year olds, four or more years of high school education are required in order to then progress to higher education. Annually, about 1.5 million students graduate from Turkish high schools. About 95% of students attend public schools, but inadequacies of the public system increasingly motivates middle-class parents to seek private education.

4. By 2012 there were over 167 universities in Turkey. Except for the Open Education Faculty (Turkish: Açıköğretim Fakültesi) at Anadolu University, entrance is regulated by a national examination, after which high school graduates are assigned to university according to their performance. In 2002, the total expenditure on education in Turkey amounted to $13.4 billion, including the state budget allocated through the National Ministry of Education and private and international funds.

5. Primary School Primary school (Turkish: İlköğretim Okulu or İlkokul) lasts 4 years; First Grade (for 6-year-olds), Second Grade (for 7-year-olds), Third Grade (for 8-year-olds) and Fourth Grade (for 9-year-olds). Primary School is sometimes referred to as "First School, 1. Level" (Turkish: İlkokul 1. Kademe) but both are correct. There are two types of Primary schools; Public Schools and Private Schools. A private school is usually referred to as a "Kolej" in Turkish. Public Schools are free but Private Schools' admission fees change from school to school. Foreign languages taught at Private Schools is usually a higher level than at Public Schools for most Private Schools prefer hiring native speakers as teachers. There are four core subjects at First, Second and Third Grades which are; Turkish, Maths, Hayat Bilgisi (literally meaning "Life Knowledge") and Foreign Language. At Fourth Grade, "Hayat Bilgisi" is replaced by Science and Social Studies. The foreign language taugh at schools changes from school to school. The most common one is English when some schools teach German, French or Spanish instead of English. Some private schools teach two foreign languages at the same time.

6. Middle School Middle school (Turkish: Ortaokul) lasts 4 years; Fifth Grade (for 10-year olds), Sixth Grade (for 11-year-olds), Seventh Grade (for 12-year- olds) and Eight Grade (for 13-year-olds). Middle School is sometimes referred to as "First School, 2. Level" (Turkish: İlkokul 2. Kademe) but both are correct.There are two types of Middle schools; Public Schools and Private Schools. A private schools is usually referred to as a "Kolej" in Turkish. Public Schools are free but Private Schools' admission fees change from school to school. Foreign languages taught at Private Schools is usually a higher level than at Public Schools for most Private Schools prefer hiring native speakers as teachers. There are five core subjects at Sixth and Seventh Grades; Turkish, Maths, Science, Social Studies and Foreign Language. At Eighth Grade, Social Studies is replaced by History. The foreign language taught at schools changes from school to school. The most common one is English when some schools teach German, French or Spanish instead of English. Some private schools teach two foreign languages at the same time.

7. High School High school lasts 4 years, with some high schools having an additional year of preparatory classes in a foreign language. The different kinds of high schools of the Turkish education system include: Public High Schools, the standard type; Anatolian High Schools which traditionally provided more lessons in a selected foreign language (English, German or French), although the language program has been substantially reduced since 2006; Imam-Hatip High Schools which have more lessons about religion and Arabic; Science High Schools focusing on science education; Social Sciences High Schools, Teacher High Schools, Police and Military High Schools, Vocational Schools, which focus on a certain type of profession (such as Tourism Vocational High Schools, Industrial Vocational High Schools, and Electrical Vocational High Schools; and finally, Private High Schools, which further departmentalize into the aforementioned systems of state schools.

8. The lessons taught in high schools' 9th and 10th grades are: Turkish language, Turkish literature, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geometry, Turkish History, Geography, a foreign language (in most cases English), a second foreign language (most commonly German but could be French, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, or Chinese), When students enter the 10th grade, they used to choose one of four tracks: Turkish language–Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences, and Languages. In Vocational High Schools, no tracks are offered, while in Science High Schools only the Science tracks are offered. There will be no tracks as of the 2010-2011 Educational Year according to the decision of Turkish Ministry of National Education.

9. At the end of high school, following the 12th grade, students take a High School Finishing Examination and they are required to pass this in order to take the university entrance exam and continue their studies at a university. Exam scores are weighted to provide students in each track with different opportunities when entering higher education, as follows: Turkish language–Mathematics gives students an advantage when applying for International Relations, Law, Education, Psychology, Economy, Business Management, and the like. Science: weighted towards Engineering, Computer Science, Medicine, and other Science related professions. Social Sciences: History, Geography, and Education. Languages: Language/Linguistics and language teaching.

10. After the national university entrance examination organized by the national examing body students, if they succeed, continue with their studies at a university. Universities provide either two or four years of education for undergraduate studies, while graduate programs last a minimum of two years. Some universities also ask for an additional year of English preparatory study to be completed before the start of studies, unless an exemption examination is passed.

11. Here are around 820 higher education institutions including universities with a total student enrollment of over 1 million. Tertiary education is the responsibility of the Higher Education Council, and funding is provided by the state for public institutions that make up the bulk of the tertiary education system. There are 167 universities in Turkey, which are classified as either public or foundational (private) and 373,353 students were graduated from these universities in 2006. Public universities typically charge very low fees while private foundation universities are highly expensive with fees that can reach $30,000 per annum. Since 1998, universities have been given greater autonomy and were encouraged to raise funds through partnerships with industry.

12. The quality of education at the Turkish universities varies greatly, some providing education and facilities on par with internationally renowned schools (the technical universities are often compared with universities in the United States, and are regularly visited by the U.S. Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and their engineering programs deemed substantially equivalent to comparable programs in the U.S.. Turkish universities actively participate in the Socrates - Erasmus program of the European Commission, aiming to increase student and academician mobility within the European Union, the European Economic Area countries, and other EU candidate states. An increasing number of Turkish university students complete a part of their studies abroad at other participating countries' universities, and Turkish universities receive students of the same status from abroad. With the passage of law 2547, the rectors of all the public universities are appointed jointly by the faculty, Higher Education Council and the President of Turkey. The current president, Abdullah Gül, has suggested that the system might be changed to eliminate the Higher Education Council and political influence.

13. Private Colleges There are many private colleges (dershane) in cities. They give extra lessons to children and also teach adults.

14. Religious Education In 1927, all courses concerning religion were excluded from the curriculum of primary, secondary, and high schools on the basis that non-Muslims also live in Turkey. Between the years 1927-1949, religious instruction was not permitted in schools in order to stop the massive abuse of Islam which led Ottoman Empire to collapse. After the World War II in 1949, the Ministry of Education allowed a course on religion in 4th and 5th grades of primary school.

15. Re-establishment In 1956, as a result of multi-party democracy, a new government was established. Being more sympathetic towards the religious sentiments of society, this new government introduced a religion course into secondary schools. This time, if the parents wanted to exempt their children from the course, they had to apply to the school with a written request. After nearly ten years, in 1967, the religion course was introduced to the 1st and 2nd grades of high school. Students, however, were enrolled for the course with the written request of their parents. In 1975, the course was extended to the third (last) grade of the high schools. And, finally, following the military coup in 1980, the religion course became schools was also constitutionally secured. The exact title of the course was, "The Culture of Religion and Knowledge of Ethics." In 1985, the Institute for Creation Research, a United States creationist group, helped advise Turkey’s education minister Vehbi Dinçerler on how to introduce creationism in high schools. Turkish academics have stated that the resulting ignorance of evolution led to Turkey coming last in a survey that measured knowledge of evolution in 34 industrialized nations.

16. Currently, religious education courses begin at the 4th grade of primary school and continues throughout secondary and high schools. From the 4th to the 8th grade, classes consist of two hours per week. At the high school level, there is one hour of class per week Thus, a student who has graduated from high school receives 8 continuous years of religion courses. There are no fixed books for the course. Rather, each school decides which book to follow—provided that the book for each level is approved by the Ministry of Education. Nearly half of the content of these courses concerns religion and Islam (whom majority are Muslims) with remaining topics ranging from secularism to humanism and from ethical values to etiquette. The major world religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism are included in the content of the course.

17. Foreign Languages The most common foreign language is English, which in public schools is taught from 4th grade (age 10) onwards through to the end of high school. In high school a second foreign language is introduced. However the number of lessons given in public schools is minimal compared to private schools, which begin teaching English in kindergarten, have two or three times as many English lessons in the timetable, and in many cases employ native speakers of English as teachers. In 2011 the Ministry of Education, under pressure from the Prime Minister to improve the learning of English in Turkey, announced that the approach to language would be thoroughly revised, part of which would include a plan to hire 40,000 foreigners as language assistants in public schools. As a result of the poor standards achieved by the public system many students take an intensive English language "prep year" when entering university. These are offered by both state and private universities throughout Turkey.