Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
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absenteeism rates have quadrupled in recent years, there is a need to improve monitoring and
tracking systems in order to understand why children are not attending school.
Improving the quality of education: Turkey`s current test-based education system does not give
students the right incentives to focus on learning and to develop a critical mind set. As test results
are the main determinants of university entrance, students pay more attention to getting higher
results in those exams than trying to actually learn content. This systemic issue is bundled with
quality problems regarding teachers. It is therefore necessary to ensure an interactive and
creative schooling environment where both students and teachers would enjoy engaging and
producing while learning. MoNE’s recently published teacher strategy document has potential for
responding to these challenges.
Significant amount of investments needed regarding inclusion of Syrian children in formal
education: In Turkey, about 40 percent of Syrian school age children are out of school. While new
legislation is becoming effective in enrolling children the total number of children in need of
formal education is also expected to increase. This will lead to an increased need of institutional
investment (both in terms of human resources and physical capacity) and will create a challenge
in Turkey’s education budget. In the current MoNE budget structure, investment related expenses
makes up less than 10 percent of total MoNE budget. However, aforementioned expansion plans
may require more budget than already allocated.