BirGün Gazetesi
Feray Aytekin Aydoğan How did schools, which once held the hope of creating a future, become places of violence and inequality? 17 April marked the anniversary of the founding of the Village Institutes. The Village Institutes were schools where children could access equal, secular, free, public and high-quality education. They represented a hope for the future. Those who have inherited the legacy of those who targeted the Village Institutes on that day have, over the past 23 years, taken away the last remnants of secular, public education that remained in the hands of children and young people. A snapshot of the destruction of the past 23 years; • With the commercialisation of education and the rise in inequality and poverty, the number of children falling outside the formal education system has reached approximately 1.5 million. The North-East, Central and South-East Anatolia regions are sounding the alarm. In Şanlıurfa, Muş and Ağrı, for example, one in three children aged 14–17 is out of education. • Absenteeism rates have reached a serious level at every stage of education. In primary school, one in ten children (13.2%) and in lower secondary school, one in five children (23.7%) are chronically absent. In general upper secondary education, this rate stands at 28.1%, in Imam Hatip high schools at 32.1%, and in vocational high schools at 40.6%. • Resources not allocated to state schools have been channelled to private school owners. The AKP era marked the peak of the rise in private schools. One in five schools is now a private school. Education has been stripped of its status as a right. • Schools have been turned into places of exploitation and violence, where child labour is disguised under the guise of education. The number of vocational training centres (MESEM) has been expanded year on year. Under the guise of four new school models, vocational high schools have also been converted into MESEMs. Alongside informal employment, the number of ‘child workers’ has exceeded 3.5 million. Since 2013, at least 853 children have lost their lives in workplace accidents. Last week, three children lost their lives in such accidents. • The right to co-educational schooling has been restricted and abolished through regulations and practical applications. Measures have been introduced to sever the connection between students who become engaged or married whilst at secondary school and formal education, thereby paving the way for the spread of child marriage. A decision was taken to repeal the article of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) which provided for the punishment of imams and couples who perform religious marriages without a civil marriage, thereby opening the door to child marriage and polygamy. The ‘age of consent for sexual relations’ was lowered from 15 to 12, effectively reducing the age at which children can be subjected to sexual abuse and rape. ‘Child abuse, harassment and rape’ were removed from the list of criminal offences by law. The way was paved for the legal age of marriage to be lowered to 12. Data on child marriage is not disclosed. There is no mechanism to monitor the situation regarding child marriages outside of official marriages. Provinces where net school enrolment rates are 80% or below are areas where girls face a higher risk of dropping out of education compared to other provinces. The number of such provinces has risen from 7 to 11 over the last three years. In 2024–25, the rate in Muş is 66.3%, and in Şanlıurfa 63.9%. • Over the past 23 years, nearly 20,000 village schools have been closed. Restrictions have also been imposed on transport-based education under the guise of ‘cost-saving’. In the past year, at least 300,000 children across all levels have dropped out of school. • Changes were made to the curriculum in 2005, 2013, 2017–2018 (across all levels) and most recently in the 2024–2025 academic year under the name “Turkey’s Century Education Model”. Each change caused significant damage to the scientific content of the curriculum. • Schooling policy was structured around the construction of the new regime and the needs of the ruling elite. It was built on the objective of increasing the number of private schools, imam hatip schools, vocational high schools and MESEMs. Every change made to the exam-centred education system, however, served to build a system based on rote learning, elimination and competition. A system was established in which hundreds of thousands of children and young people were labelled “failures”, and those unable to pay for education were forced into imam hatip schools, MESEMs and vocational high schools. • Official reports have revealed that almost all exam questions set by the Examination and Placement Centre (ÖSYM) – including those for the Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS), University Entrance Exam (ÖSS), Academic Personnel and Postgraduate Education Exam (ALES), Military High Schools and the Foreign Language Proficiency Exam (YDS) – were leaked between 2000 and 2013. Children and young people were forced to live with the reality of cheating scandals, fake diplomas, leaked questions and nepotism. • Teachers were declared responsible for the destruction they had caused. Teachers’ rights and their identity as pedagogical agents were stripped from them. They became targets of violence. With every step taken to discredit the teaching profession, teachers’ role in preventing violence was weakened. On 13 April, the final blow to the teaching profession was struck with the closure of the Academy and Faculties of Education, where ‘lessons’ were supposedly resumed. • Under the guise of ‘protocols’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘patronage’, sectarian structures have encircled all schools. Their anti-secular, anti-public education rhetoric and activities have transformed the educational environment itself into spaces that breed violence, oppression and inequality . • Gender-mixed education was gradually abolished through regulations and practical implementations. • Children have endured the greatest destruction in our country’s history regarding secular, scientific and public education. Today is 23 April. Children are experiencing the reality that educational environments themselves produce inequality and violence. They are enduring the most severe days of the destruction wrought in education over the past 23 years. Note: This article is translated from the original article titled 23 Nisan'da eğitimde son 23 yılın yıkımının fotoğrafı , published in BirGün newspaper on April 23, 2026.
Go to News Site