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Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:

The Key to Escape from Poverty

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MoNE has recently started Inclusive Education for Children Having Disabilities Project.

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The

Project aims to increase children’s access to quality inclusive education in pre-primary level and

1

st

grade at the primary level. Apart from increasing access to education for the long run the

project aims to improve children’s employability in the future and their integration in economic

and social life.

Gender: Increasing girls’ access to school

Turkey stands out as a successful example of a country narrowing the gender gap in access to

education. Increasing girls’ educational enrolment was among the main goals of MoNE. To this

end, there have been, and still are, nationwide projects implemented in collaboration with public

and private partners. “

Come on Girls, let’s go to school (Haydi Kızlar Okula)

” was the first significant

attempt to reduce gender disparity in education simply by increasing girls’ access to education.

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Implementation of the programme began in 2003 in the 10 provinces

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where girls’ school

enrolment was lowest. The programme has been jointly implemented by the MoNE and UNICEF,

and was scaled up to the national level within 3 years. As of 2006 all 81 provinces of Turkey were

subject to this programme. The implementation of the programme was coordinated at both

central and provincial levels. In every province, a provincial committee had been set up and they

were the main party responsible for the execution of the programme on the ground. The members

of provincial level committees were provincial directors of education, health, social services,

agriculture, population and citizenship affairs, directors of religious affairs (mufti), vice governors

and mayors. NGO and press representatives as well as primary education supervisors were in this

committee. While this was a national programme introduced through central government bodies,

composing local teams and involving them throughout the implementation process resulted in

great success in increasing girls’ school enrolment rates. The programme was established on the

following core principles. Firstly, the programme began with the identification of girls who had

either never been to school or who had dropped out. This was followed by family visits aimed at

persuading family members on how important involving girls in education was. While household

visits were being held, national and local level advertising campaigns were on the go. The publicity

was wide-ranging and attention grabbing. Finally, the programme also tracked progress by

monitoring girls’ school attendance. The programme was run for 4 years and ended in 2007 with

239,112 girls enrolled in formal education.

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Haydi Kızlar Okula was the first and most prominent attempt at increasing girls’ participation and

worked quite well but was not sufficient on its own. The MoNE therefore continued its mission

and introduced a subsequent project called “Technical Assistance for Increasing School

Attendance Rates Especially for Girls”

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(Özellikle Kız Çocuklarının Okula Devam Oranlarının

Arttırılması Projesi – KEP I & II). The aim of this project is to i) increase girls’ attendance rates in

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Information about this Project is obtained from the Ministry of National Education through formal writing.

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Yazan (2013)

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10 provinces in the first phase were: Ağrı, Batman, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Hakkâri, Muş, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak, Van.

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Gümüş and Gümüş (2013)

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EuropeAid/133119/IH/SER/TR