Indicators of Target 3

6. Net Enrollment Ratio in Primary Education  

7. Proportion of Pupils Starting Grade 1 Who Reach Grade 5

8. Literacy Rate of 15 to 24-Year-Olds

Status and Trends

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to education. Elementary education shall be compulsory and free. Enrollment and attendance indicators of education are considered among the main human development indicators. The Millennium Development Targets determine three indicators concerning enrollment, attendance and literacy to ensure universal primary education.

Target 3: Ensure that, by 2015, Children Everywhere, Boys and Girls Alike, will be Able to Complete a Full Course of Primary Schooling

Indicator 6: Net Enrollment Ratio in Primary Education  

Prior to 1997, primary education referred to five-years of compulsory education in Turkey. In 1997, compulsory education was extended to eight years and was classified as primary education. Besides the extension of compulsory education, Turkey started a Basic Education Program aiming to reach 100% enrollment, to reduce class size, to shift from double shift to full day education and to increase the quality in of primary education. The main policies for achieving those objectives have been determined as follows:

•  Increasing the number of school buildings and classrooms,

•  Expanding the transport service in the education system,

•  Increasing the boarding capacities in primary boarding schools,

•  Supplying education necessities to poor students,

•  Providing equipment and materials for schools.

Table 6: Net Enrollment Ratio in Primary Education

Source: SIS, National Education Statistics
(*) Statistics for 2002, 2003 and 2004 are provisional. Data for 1990-1996 are calculated according to 8-years compulsory primary education

Because lower secondary education (Grades 6 through 8) was not compulsory before 1997, the enrollment ratio in this level was half that of the present, and was even lower for female students. The net enrollment ratios of five-year and eight-year primary education are not available for comparison. However, a significant increase in enrollment rates for both boys and girls is was observed between 1997 and 2001, compared to the 1990-1996 period. After 1997, the net enrollment ratio increased by 11% for girls, 6% for boys and 9% in total. With the inclusion of lower secondary in compulsory education, the gap between genders has been narrowing.

Indicator 7: Proportion of Pupils Starting Grade 1 Who Reach Grade 5

No data is currently available. The data will be collected in the framework of the MDG indicators for the next period.

Indicator 8: Literacy Rate of 15-24-Year-Olds

The literacy rate of 15-24-year-olds reached 96.5% in 2002. Some differentials exist between genders, with figures of 98.4% for males and 94.7% for females. Although the gender gap has been narrowing steadily since 1990, improving the enrollment and literacy ratios for females requires attention. Additional efforts should be made to encourage greater participation of girls in the education system.

Table 7: Literacy Rate of 15-24-year-olds

Relevant Policies

During 1998-2003, approximately 18,600 classrooms were constructed annually. The construction of schools was financed from the national budget, funds developed for basic education, contributions from provincial administrations, foreign credit and donations. A Basic Education Project financed by the World Bank was initiated in 1998 to support the National Basic Education Program's efforts. During the first phase of this project, approximately 1,650 schools in rural areas were repaired, and the capacity of some of these schools was increased. Computers were purchased for nearly 26,000 schools in rural areas, computer classes were established in 2,800 schools, educational materials were distributed and in-service training was provided to teachers. The second phase of the project will also focus on improving the infrastructure of schools in rural and deprived areas, establishing Internet and communication technologies (ICT), providing materials for special needs education and in-service training for teachers.

A transport service was initiated in order to provide access to better quality education and to ensure equal opportunities for students who had been attending multi-grade schools and those who live in small and sparsely populated areas, or in areas where there are no schools. In this system, students are transported daily by bus to the nearest central schools. With the extension of compulsory education, a transport service became a necessity in providing education to students in grades 6-8, especially in rural settlements. From a total of 654,000 students (6.3% of all students) who benefited from this transportation system during the 2002-2003 academic year, 307,000 were girls. These students are entitled to free transport to school, free lunch, free textbooks and free uniforms.

Boarding schools are being opened in sparsely populated areas to provide primary education services to the school-age groups in villages and sub-village settlements where there are no schools, as well as to students from poor families. Currently, 279,800 students attend 538 boarding schools, up from 78,000 students and 153 schools in 1997, marking an increase of 3.5 times.

Besides the measures taken for formal education, mass education opportunities have been increased for the adult population. In particular, the "open primary school" has been introduced concurrently with 8-year compulsory primary education, on a distance learning basis, to provide educational opportunities to citizens who Are unable to attend primary school or go on to lower secondary school for various reasons. The distance learning system will enable all individuals who wish to continue their education to complete eight years of primary school. The number of people in open primary education reached 308,000 in 2003.

In a separate effort to increase access to education, and thus help improve the standards of living in disadvantaged rural and urban areas, while augmenting the eight-year compulsory education program, the Supporting Basic Education project was launched in 2003 with the financial support of Euro 100 million from the European Union. In this project there are five main activity subjects and these are quality of education, teacher training, non-formal education, communication, managing and organization.

The main objective of the project is to decrease poverty and increase the education level. To support the children, young people and adult's basic education is another aim of the project. Besides schooling girls and street children, educational activities concerning the relationship between teachers and students have been carried out. Another education activity for 1,500 teachers started in Istanbul called "Approaches to Children who are at Risk."

The aim of the project is to increase the quality of education, to reach the parents and to increase the level of formal and in non-formal education for girls and women. To increase the quality of education, 203 educational activities on subjects such as teaching methods in English and active learning methods have been carried out and almost 14,000 people have attended these activities. Supporting the Basic Education Project contributes to the development of the "New Primary Education Program." Activities supported by this project include providing local and foreign specialists and performing in-service training for teachers. Developed programs have been performed carried out in 120 schools as part of nine pilot projects.

Activities involving the primary education age group in 10 provinces started in 2003 as part of a Child-Friendly Learning Environments' program with the cooperation of UNICEF and the Ministry of National Education (MoNE). The Child-Friendly Schools Campaign of the program aims to improve the quality of education and increase the learning achievements of students aged between 6-14 in the pilot schools to ensure greater participation of students and parents in decisions affecting the management of schools, to render schools more attractive for children and their parents and to reduce the drop-out rate by the end of 2005. The analysis of the situation for the education of girls, meetings at a local level, monitoring the project and evaluating the results are also among the functions of the work.

MoNE aims to increase the enrollment rate of female students girls' and to reduce the gap between girls and boys in primary education through a campaign entitled "Haydi Kizlar, Okula" (Come on Girls, to School) introduced in 2003 in the 10 most disadvantaged provinces. The campaign is the a joint cooperation effort of UNICEF and MoNE. According to the 2003 campaign results, there was a difference between the enrollment rates. It now stands at 45,000, while in previous years it was 85,000. Eliminating the enrollment gap between boys and girls and ensuring gender equality in primary school enrollment by the end of 2005 is the priority of MoNE. This campaign to aims at fulfilling this priority through the provision of quality basic education to all girls in 53 provinces with the lowest schooling rate for girls.

The campaign covered 33 provinces in 2004 and rose to 53 in 2005. In the 2003-2004 education year, the increase in the number of girl students was 1% for other provinces, while this increase was 5.8% in the 10 provinces noted above.

Pre-School education is not compulsory, but the necessary importance was given to education at this level, and over the course of a year the pre-schooling rate increased from 11% to 16.1%.

This increase is the result of opening pre-school classes in the primary education system. The physical capacities of buildings belonging to, but not used by public organizations, governorships and municipalities will be assessed, and if adequate will be used for pre-school education. As a result, the schooling rate will reach 25% at the end of 2005 and 30% in 2006.

The "100% Support for Education" campaign is another government-sponsored activity launched to attract additional resources for education. Under the campaign, all donations and investments made in the field of education are fully tax deductible.

Repairation of 481 primary and secondary schools (7,143 classes), 1,139 additional classes to 221 schools, 23 education centers, five higher education schools and 1,470 schools have been completed. YTL 1.005 billion and 174.767 square meters of land has been donated. As a result, almost YTL 2 billion has been contributed for education.

Under the "Social Risk Mitigation" project, there is a component created for encouraging the poorest 6% of the population in order to access basic education and health facilities. The government began started to implement a new system called "Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)," in 2004. This system supports the families of poor students who are attending primary and secondary schools, on a monthly basis.

During 2003-2004, to support the Basic Education Project, free books were distributed. In the first year 81,334,281 books were distributed , followed by and 83,749,000 during in the 2004-2005 period. Totally, YTL 303 million has been invested in this campaign.

NGOs also have a very important role concerning education in the organization of conferences, scholarship programs and courses for adults. They also carry out important projects such as "Seven is too late for pre-school education," "Father, send me to school" and "Let's be hope for girls" the last two focusing mainly on femal students.

Benchmarks and Monitoring Capabilities

MoNE, the State Institute of Statistics (SIS), the 1990 and 2000 census and the Household Labor Force Surveys are the main sources of data.

Basic data on education is collected for MoNE by a network called ILSIS. Every school has access to the system and data is collected under the supervision of MoNE's provincial administration network. Data is published at the beginning of the academic year and varies from one year to the next. SIS publishes formal education statistics using MoNE's data and is considered accurate, but is published two years later than MoNE's statistics.

There is a need to enhance the capacity of the data collection system to make it sounder and more accurate and effective. The data collection process should be examined and steps taken to ensure the prompt output of reliable statistics.

A national census is conducted every five-years. Projections on the population groups of primary school age are based on census results. Miscalculation occurs, especially at a regional level, as a result of international and rural-to-urban migration.

Targets and Indicators

Monitoring Capability

Challenges

As the population of the primary education age group increases, the need to expand the coverage of the education system with greater investments in the infrastructure and human resources also grows over the years. During the 2003-2004 school year, 200,000 more students enrolled in primary education than graduated the previous year.

Even though the extension of compulsory education to eight years marked an increase in the number of students, it also generated some problems of quality. Class size could not be reduced to the desired level, and the switch from double shift to full-day education could not be accomplished. An international assessment of student learning showed that Turkey should improve its education system.

Turkey rapidly made improvements to education especially after 1997. Nevertheless, resources allocated to education were used for educational facilities for new students and the rapid increase in enrollment rates caused certain quality problems. In the 2003 Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) study, Turkey was one of the unsuccessful countries.

In terms of the non-enrollment of girls, "the cost of schooling" emerges as the most frequently cited (26%) reasons, and becomes even more dominant (30.2%) in urban areas. In fact, in urban areas, economic factors appear to be more salient for the non-enrollment of both boys and girls, while the "lack of interest in school" is the main reason in rural areas. The reasons for non-enrollment of girls in rural areas appear to be more varied, including "unavailability of proper schools," "household chores" and "lack of family permission" to go to school. While economic and socio-cultural factors play a greater role in female non-enrollment, in general, cost appears to be the main factor in female non-enrollment in urban areas, and "family obligations" and "family values" in rural settings.

Approximately 10% of primary-school-age children are currently excluded from the primary education system. Turkey should make every effort to ensure that these children attend school. There is no reason for Turkey not to achieve the 100% enrollment rate by 2015.

A reduction in the growth of population in particular will cause a decrease in the primary education age, and will help shift the focus of investments to the content and the quality of education.

Alternative learning approaches that provide employment opportunities, particularly vocational education, should be offered to students at risk of dropping out of primary education in order to hold them in school.

Awareness of the importance of girls' education should be raised at the central, provincial and community levels.

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