Education in Turkey
As I mentioned in my previous posts, there are many problems related to education system in Turkey. I have lots of chances to observe the problems since I am a part of this system in my country as an English teacher. One of the most serious problems in this system is the inequality in education. Today, I am going to inform you about this problem, giving my personal opinion based on my experiences. Turkey is a big country geographically. There are 7 regions in the country and unfortunately, there are huge differences in opportunity equality.
The biggest gap related to education is between the eastern and western parts of Turkey. I live in the western part of Turkey, in a city called Izmir. People have better financial incomes as the city is really popular for many people. On the other hand, when we look at the cities in the eastern part of Turkey like Hakkari, Şırnak, Mardin, people have really bad conditions in terms of education, finance and tourism. As there is an unfortunate and ongoing terror problem in the eastern part, people can't get the same opportunities with the ones who are living in the western part of Turkey.
Teachers
As the eastern part of Turkey is not well-developed and popular, many teachers don't want to work in that part. When the case is like this, unlucky children in that part can't get the same education opportunities. That is really sad, but it is the reality of Turkey. Turkey needs to fix this problem as soon as possible as it creates a huge gap between the citizens of the country.
Teacher have chances to change their cities If they get high grades from their exams and they directly prefer to go back to more developed cities like Izmir, Istanbul or Ankara. Who thinks about the children in the eastern part? Well, it is really sad to say this, but not many people care about it. All we need and care is better opportunities to continue our lives. Also, the conditions of the schools are also big reaons creating this crisis. As you can see in the image below, the conditions of schools in the eastern part are not very well.
Economy and Private Schools
When we look at students in more developed parts of the country like Izmir and Istanbul, it is possible to see many private schools which provide better education as they are able to have better students than the ones in public schools. There is nothing wrong with private schools, but when we look at the examination system of Turkey, it really makes huge differences as they all have to take the same exams to get into universities or high schools.
In Turkey, when people want to go to college or high school, they have to take an exam to get the best places in the schools. When you don't get the same education opportunities, how can you expect the students with lower financial power to compete with the ones who have better financial support? I guess, now you can understand what I am trying to tell you in this post.
Education For Girls!
Another important point in education system is the case of girls who can't manage to go to even primary schools, especially in the eastern part of Turkey. People pay more attention to boys in families. Girls have less opportunities to go to schools. There have been many campaigns in the country to encourage and support people in the eastern part of Turkey to send their girls to schools. One of them is " Dad, Please send me to school!" which means " Baba, lütfen beni okula gönder". You can see the image that is used in the campaign above this paragraph.
Teacher's Note
Education is the key element which helps nations to grow up and gain their freedom in challenging system of the world. As teachers and people of the community, we should do our best to raise the value of education and enlighten people more about this so that we can have a safe and bright future for us!
Thanks for reading.