Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
114
MoNE has recently started Inclusive Education for Children Having Disabilities Project.309 The
Project aims to increase children’s access to quality inclusive education in pre-primary level and
1st 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.310
Implementation of the programme began in 2003 in the 10 provinces311 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. 312
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”313 (Özellikle Kız Çocuklarının Okula Devam Oranlarının
Arttırılması Projesi – KEP I & II). The aim of this project is to i) increase girls’ attendance rates in
309 Information about this Project is obtained from the Ministry of National Education through formal writing.
310 Yazan (2013)
311 10 provinces in the first phase were: Ağrı, Batman, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Hakkâri, Muş, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak, Van.
312 Gümüş and Gümüş (2013)
313 EuropeAid/133119/IH/SER/TR