Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
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committed to helping Syrians graduating from high school to attend university in Turkey by
providing preparatory language courses, exempting them from taking university entrance
exams, and providing 1,000 university scholarships per year through the Presidency of Turks
Abroad and Related Communities.57 Eight universities in south and southeast Turkey are
participating in this initiative.58
For the past several years, Syrian children have had the option of attending three types of
schools: Turkish public schools, Temporary Education Centers (TECs), and community
religious schools. Turkish public schools are free, but they are, naturally, conducted
completely in Turkish. Few educators have training in bilingual education or know how to
accommodate children who have been traumatized by war and displacement.59 Under the
Ministry of National Education (MoNE) Circular of Foreigners’ Access to Education (2014/21),
Temporary Education Centers are supervised by the MoNE’s provincial directorates and are
taught by Syrian teachers using adapted (usually Libyan) curricula. Many are supported by
UNICEF, international donors, and other NGOs.60 These schools suffer from a lack of funding,
rely on teachers to volunteer their time, and their diplomas are not accredited by the Ministry
of National Education.61 Finally, community-based religious schools are unaccredited learning
centers without supervision over content or quality.62 It has been estimated that during the
2014-2015 school year 36,655 Syrian students outside Temporary Accommodation Centers
attended Turkish Public Schools and 101,257 attended TECs.63
Due to increasing worries over the content and quality of Temporary Education Centers, the
Ministry of National Education has decided to phase out these institutions, starting by
mandating that all new kindergarten and first-grade students attend Turkish primary
schools.64 Doing away with TECs may have two critical consequences. Firstly, Syrian students
will become more integrated in Turkish society, and might lose the Arabic language skills of
their parents. This will perhaps make an eventual return to Syria more difficult, contravening
the ultimate objective of the Temporary Protection Regulation. Secondly, the burden of
integrating 700,000 new students into the public school system has been estimated to require
35,000 new teachers and 25,000 classrooms at a cost of at least USD 560 million.65 This
process is even more burdensome given the 2012 Education Reform Bill, which added more
children to the public school system in border provinces by raising the length of compulsory
education from eight to twelve years.66
Turkish public schools will undoubtedly be strained by the phasing out of TECs, especially
given that most Syrian families live in poor neighborhoods, with the lowest quality of
57 Soner Cagaptay and Bilge Menekse, The Impact of Syria’s Refugees on Southern Turkey, Revised and Updated (The
Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Focus 130, July 2014), 11,
ORSAM and
TESEV, Effects of the Syrian Refugees on Turkey, 35; Metin Çorabatır, in conversation with Kathleen Newland, May 25, 2016.
58 Communication fro the Ministry fo the Economy, August 16, 2016.
59 Human Rights Watch, ‘When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing.’
60 MoNE 2014/21; World Bank, Turkey’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Road Ahead, 7.
61 Shelley Culbertson and Louay Constant, Education of Syrian Children: Managing the Crisis in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan
(Santa Monica, California: Rand Corporation, 2015), 32,
Istanbul Multi-Service Center, in conversation with Kathleen
Newland, May 6, 2016.
62 Shelley Culbertson and Louay Constant, Education of Syrian Children, 17.
63 Human Rights Watch, ‘When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing.’
64 M. Murat Erdoğan (Associate Professor, Hacettepe University) in conversation with Kathleen Newland, May 3, 2016;
World Bank, Turkey’s Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Road Ahead, 7.
65 M. Murat Erdoğan, in conversation with Kathleen Newland, May 3, 2016; Human Rights Watch, ‘When I Picture My Future,
I See Nothing.’
66 Human Rights Watch, ‘When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing.’