Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
107
Access to early childhood education: Pre-primary and early childhood education are still not
widely available in Turkey. The latest MoNE statistics for formal education show that the net
schooling ratios in pre-primary education are 12.48, 36.15, and 70.43 percent or children age 3,
4, and 5 respectively.282 A World Bank study carried out in 2015 showed that 2.7 million children
between aged 3 and 5 are neither in preschools nor in child care, and 42,388 new preschools and
child care centres are needed in order to reach the OECD average pre-primary enrolment rate.283
However MoNE is planning to make pre-primary education compulsory and extend compulsory
education to be 13 years by adding 1 year of pre-primary education. This could affect the pre-
primary education enrolment rates positively.284
Quality Education
Teacher quality: While legislation, policies, and programmes are effective in increasing access to
education, quality still remains an issue. Teacher quality, irrespective of the political and social
circumstances in the countries, is among the foremost determinants of quality education in
developed and developing countries.285
In fact in-service trainings are provided to the majority of the teacher work force in Turkey. In
2016, 1.729.016 teachers participated in 37.798 in-service training sessions held face-to-face or
remotely, reaching 71% of teachers in only one year.286 These trainings are created after studies
to identify institutional needs and teachers' in-service needs, and are formed in cooperation with
the departments of MoNE, other public institutions and organizations, civil society organizations
and universities.
Yet our literature review and field visits also revealed that in Turkey, quality of education is
closely related to teacher quality, and there is still room for improvement despite the large
number of in-service trainings already provided. Pre- and in-service trainings are where teachers
gain necessary skills. However, recent studies and international tests on learning and teacher
qualifications suggest that, in Turkey, these trainings do not always meet the contemporary needs
of the education system.287 A qualitative research study undertaken at a university’s faculty of
education in 2014 suggested that in-service training was not responding to teachers’ needs, and
most of the time a newly graduated teacher did not feel ready to meet the current needs of the
classroom.288 While technological tools such as interactive boards and tablets are being
introduced into classrooms reasonably quickly, teachers may not always be completely informed
about new tools and their use. Amore hands-on, practice based in-service training would enhance
teachers’ capacity to cope with new developments.
282 Ministry of National Education (2017)
283 World Bank (2015b)
284 According to the press statement of the Minister of National Education:
egitimi-13-yil-yapacagiz-40479257
285 P. W. Glewwe, Hanushek, Humpage, and Ravina (2013)
286 This information is obtained from MoNE through formal writing.
287 ERG (2015)
288 Kösterelioğlu and Bayar (2014)