Educational System in Turkey
ASSSIGNMENT # 1 International Education Program in Turkish School
ŞAKİRE ÖRMECİ
Educational system of Turkey is directly controlled by Ministry of National Education (MEB) in terms of constructions curricula and their implementations in school. The Ministry of Education creates common curricula and makes all school in Turkey obligatory to apply these curricula by checking schools’ and teachers’ documentations (Halicioğlu, 2008). In addition these curricula are national based content since Turkish educational system aims to ‘raise all individuals as citizens who adopt, protect and promote the national, moral, human, spiritual and cultural values of the Turkish Nation’ (1). Therefore International education programs have not a significant place in Turkish educational system, while some private schools in Turkey offer and implement some international programs as an alternative/auxiliary education program beside to Turkish National Education. One of these educational programs is International Baccalaureate (IB) program which is offered by 28 schools in Turkey. Only one school out of 28 schools is a state school (Istanbul Prof. Dr. Mümtaz Turhan Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi); others are private schools.(2) This shows that IB is applied by mostly private schools in Turkey.
Until recently, Turkey has implemented traditional, teacher-centered national curricula which did not meet globalizing world needs and raised people who only learn by rote with a behaviorist approach. Although in 2004, Turkey made an educational reform which is movement towards contemporary and global educational norms with a constructivist approach(Akinoglu, 2008), the effects of old educational policies on Turkish schools still continue. On the other hand examinations such as SBS (for high school entrance), YGS, LYS ( for university entrance) that are used to place students into high schools, universities lead students to compete with their peers. This situation has caused many students loose the
ŞAKİRE ÖRMECİ
Educational system of Turkey is directly controlled by Ministry of National Education (MEB) in terms of constructions curricula and their implementations in school. The Ministry of Education creates common curricula and makes all school in Turkey obligatory to apply these curricula by checking schools’ and teachers’ documentations (Halicioğlu, 2008). In addition these curricula are national based content since Turkish educational system aims to ‘raise all individuals as citizens who adopt, protect and promote the national, moral, human, spiritual and cultural values of the Turkish Nation’ (1). Therefore International education programs have not a significant place in Turkish educational system, while some private schools in Turkey offer and implement some international programs as an alternative/auxiliary education program beside to Turkish National Education. One of these educational programs is International Baccalaureate (IB) program which is offered by 28 schools in Turkey. Only one school out of 28 schools is a state school (Istanbul Prof. Dr. Mümtaz Turhan Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi); others are private schools.(2) This shows that IB is applied by mostly private schools in Turkey.
Until recently, Turkey has implemented traditional, teacher-centered national curricula which did not meet globalizing world needs and raised people who only learn by rote with a behaviorist approach. Although in 2004, Turkey made an educational reform which is movement towards contemporary and global educational norms with a constructivist approach(Akinoglu, 2008), the effects of old educational policies on Turkish schools still continue. On the other hand examinations such as SBS (for high school entrance), YGS, LYS ( for university entrance) that are used to place students into high schools, universities lead students to compete with their peers. This situation has caused many students loose the
References: from websites: (1) http://www.meb.gov.tr/Stats/apk2001ing/Section_1/1Generalprincipals.htm (2) http://www.ibo.org/school/search/index.cfm?programmes=&country=TR®ion=&find_schools=Find (3) http://www.ibo.org/mission/ ed