The Turkish Education System
In recent years, Turkey has introduced a
variety of reforms to its education system and curriculum.
Teachers are no longer required to teach exclusively from a
core curriculum and are given more freedom in their choice of
subjects, while foreign language learning is compulsory
from the fourth grade of primary school with many
choosing to start even earlier.
There are four main stages to the Turkish education system:
pre-primary, primary, secondary and higher.
- Pre-Primary Education: Aimed at three to six year olds,
pre-primary education is an optional system for children under the
age of compulsory primary education.
- Primary Education: Primary education in Turkey lasts from the
ages of seven to fourteen and is free of charge and compulsory for
all children. At the end of this eight year period children
graduate with a primary education diploma. In addition to
this, a distance-learning programme has been implemented which
allows older people to graduate from primary level.
- Secondary Education: Secondary educational establishments are
divided into two specific types: General and
Vocational-Technical. Secondary education typically lasts four
years and is also available to older people as a distance learning
programme.
- Higher Education: Universities, vocational higher
education schools and application research centres are higher
education institutions which provide a variety of different
education types. Science, technology and
communications have all been areas in which Turkish higher
education institutions have excelled in recent years.