Criticism of Turkiye’s Education System

 In Turkiye, education is free and compulsory in the first three stages, elementary school, middle school, and high school, which is 12 years in total. However, we all doubt the quality of all these stages. Any student from a middle-class average family in Turkiye, can not get a proper education. It seems so, but most of the time it is not. Reasons for this can be a lot of things, classes are too crowded, teachers’ income is not enough, which results in worse work efficiency, students do not have equal opportunities even if they are in the same classroom, the fact that we still have village schools with so little materials, and so many reasons are valid.

In addition to these and many more problems, there is one big issue, and that is the evaluation system in general. Students are taking so many exams each year and the “big” exams such as LGS and YKS. And it is inevitable that measuring students’ knowledge multiple times throughout the year and then using them instead of one exam’s result is better. This system will lower their stress, and give them more time and more opportunities to be better in those lessons.

Exam stress is a reality that puts a lot of pressure on children, starting from a very young age. And this evaluation system mostly focuses on putting students ahead of their peers, rather than caring about what they learned to help their individual development. This is a result of the whole education system itself because it makes them compete in the first place.

“18 years ago, the number of private schools at all levels from kindergarten to high school was 1377, the number of students studying in these schools was 217 thousand 930, and the number of teachers working at private schools was 20 thousand 730.

However, by 2019, there are now 12 thousand 809 private schools, 1 million 440 thousand 577 students studying in these schools, and 169 thousand 740 teachers working in private schools in Turkiye.”

Thinking of this fact, we can say that private schools’ increasing in number, also increases and contributes to the uneven conditions and opportunities for students’ education. All of these facts make students feel hopeless and lose their courage and confidence.

With the current system, students tend to believe they won’t succeed. Even if they reach their goals and dreams, they are anxious about the future of their dream jobs and they are worried that their dream job will not provide them with sufficient income. So they hopelessly try to make their best and be a winner in this “competition.”

Elective courses in schools should be about performing arts, sports, science, social studies, a course for computer sciences etc., but this is almost impossible and unrealistic in current schools. In our schools we don’t offer many choices to our students other than classic subjects such as math, English… Thus, elective courses lose their aim and fail to contribute to students’ individual development. They already have long hours of lessons and we keep adding more pressure on them. We are so focused on the exam scores that we no longer want anything that does not serve this purpose.

We also need to talk about the changes in the exam system. Exams change so suddenly and often that students can’t keep up with the rapid changes. This creates even greater stress on them. Every time the exam changes, they need to figure out something new. Also, they lose the chance to see previously asked questions, to be more prepared, and to have an idea of what they will be doing. Because of these rapid changes, students have difficulty in adjusting to new question types and managing their anxiety.

Students in their senior years, (8th graders and 12th graders) only think about those entrance exams. It is so serious that, in my experience, I can surely say that 12th graders do not even want to come to school because it is their “exam year.” Some school administrations in Turkiye do not take attendance for 12th graders, because everyone is aware that lessons in schools fail to help those students. They think school is wasting their time, making them feel tired for nothing, they think and feel like they need to use all their time studying by themselves or with the help of a course or private lessons.

Students don’t think they spend their time productively when they are at school. Personally, I have seen so many students thinking that classes such as arts, music, German, physical education, etc. are useless, and if the teacher wants to do something about those lessons and not let them study freely in their class times, students get angry and do not want to do anything related to those lessons.

With the current evaluation and education system, students feel forced to memorize everything, just to forget everything after the exam. Because this is the only way to make a good score and be successful. In fact, students are left with no other choices, so they memorize everything because even the teachers rely on books. And their parents are not enough in supporting them, because they are not informed enough. Parents in Turkiye often neglect taking care of their children’s mental health and forget about the importance of their personal growth. They do not try to make schools or education itself “a better place”, because, in fact, they have already accepted the system and they are the biggest supporters of it, with the pressure they have on their children.

In our country, 12 years of compulsory education is given to every child free of charge, but this "education" is so inadequate that despite being in a learning environment in schools for 12 years, people still have trouble learning how to behave in society,  they fail at being kind to others, and spiritual values. Some of them can not even respect people who are/think different from them. Since social skills and values are not properly taught in schools, children learn them from books, movies, and cartoons, and if they are lucky, they learn from their friends and family by mirroring them. It is surprising and sad that there are people who struggle with basically anything they need to stay alive. They don’t know how to cook, personal hygiene, or how talk to a person in a formal manner. They always need someone to do it for them or they never learn at all.

We need to face the truth that even if children study so hard to get into the schools they want, this is not enough to guarantee their future jobs. Working takes so much space in our life, so we need to find the best job for ourselves, but without inner peace and time we spend with ourselves should not be ignored. In order to do that, children should find out what they personally like and dislike at a young age, then do their choices accordingly. Success should only be wanted when it brings happiness.

“Higher education graduates make up about a fourth of Turkey’s labor force of 32 million, which comes across as a positive outlook. Yet 12-13% of the educated labor force is unemployed and the uptick in the rate is a source of serious concern. The main reason behind the trend has to do with the quality of higher education in Turkey... The problem is that holding a degree in Turkey does not necessarily mean being a qualified professional in demand. The number of universities in the country has reached 206, including 129 state universities and 77 private ones, according to figures by the Higher Education Board, which coordinates and supervises universities. All of the country’s 81 provincial capitals have at least one university, and many towns are home to a faculty or some other tertiary school. Yet, out of the nearly 7 million students currently enrolled in those universities, only some 4 million attend regular programs that require their physical presence at school, while the remaining 3 million study mostly on the basis of distance education, involving TV and online courses. This educational infrastructure has major shortcomings in terms of qualified academic staff and equipment, such as modern labs and libraries. It lacks any planning system that takes into account what kind of labor the country’s economy demands, resulting in a harsh reality where 12-13% of university graduates are unable to find jobs.” (Mustafa Sönmez, April 16, 2019)

In the current evaluation system, 13-14-year-olds are expected to solve hundreds of questions a day to get a high score. Parents are proud that their child is working hard for the exam and they think their child is so “clever and responsible”, but nobody doubts its’ necessity. Do 13-year-olds really need to be that hardworking? School should be important, for sure, but they are still too young to spend all their day studying for a test with heavy, thick books. They should spend more time outside playing or doing something they like such as arts, music, and games.

Teachers alone are not enough to solve this problem. Even if they want to do something different from the curriculum, first, the school administration, then the parents of the students begin to complain. They tend to think that the teachers are not doing their jobs properly. This actually harms both students and teachers. Because neither of them is strong enough to change the whole system. Even if they want to and try to make a difference, the current evaluation system and accepted truths and beliefs are too ingrained to remove. In order to make a difference for our children, students, teachers, and our future, we all need to be aware of the importance of these problems and try to solve them.