Turks lack knowledge, over 2,000 Turkish students drop out of school daily

So why is the Gulen Movement putting in schools worldwide?  How did they convince the world that Turkey has some stellar educational system?

More than a third of 15-year-olds are not attending school, while 42 percent in the same age category are unable to solve basic math problems, the report says

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2000 Turkish students drop out of school daily’

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
Thursday, September 22, 2011

Some 2,000 were reported to drop out of school daily in Turkey, according to a recent report. 40 percent of
girls and 25 percent of boys between 15 and 19 are also reported to be neither working nor studying.

Some 2,000 students drop out of Turkey’s secondary schools every day during the educational year, and those who remain enrolled are often failing to learn key skills, a new report has said.

The report, sent to Parliament by the Education Reform Initiative, or ERG, also noted problems with poor training for teachers and a lack of sufficient public spending on education.

Some 360,000 students dropped out of Turkey’s secondary schools in the 2008-2009 school year, while another 295,000 dropped out in the following term, according to ERG, which operates under Istanbul’s Sabancı University. This means an average of 2,000 students drop out each day during the school year.

The report also noted that 40 percent of girls and 25 percent of boys between the ages of 15 and 19 are neither working nor studying.

Dropout rates

More than a third of 15-year-olds in Turkey are not attending school, while 42 percent of juveniles in the same age category are unable to solve basic math problems, according to ERG’s report, which cited figures from the Programme for International Student Assessment, or

PISA, a project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD.

Turkey’s results on PISA’s 2009 exam are among the worst in OECD countries, with some 25 percent of 15-year-olds also unable to comprehend written texts, and another 30 percent unable to solve science and technology problems they could face in real-life circumstances.

Turkey’s Anatolian high schools have the lowest dropout rates in the country, with around 0.3 percent of students dropping out, while vocational high schools have the highest dropout rates: 11.8 percent for girls and 22.6 percent for boys.

According to the ERG report, Turkey is also among the three OECD countries where students’ success in school is most heavily

affected by their socioeconomic background, including their families’ level of education, income and occupational status.

The rate of access to higher education for the top 20 percent in terms of socioeconomic status stands around 28 percent in Turkey, while the bottom 20 percent have a 0.4 percent rate of access to such institutions, the report said, calling for lawmakers to provide special support for the disadvantaged.

Despite the upswing in recent years, total public spending on

education is still low, according to the report. Some 3.8 percent of public funds in Turkey will be allocated to education in 2013, compared to an OECD average of 6 percent.

Teachers in Turkey are not trained and supported the way they should be, the report also said.

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Turks lack knowledge, learn from television’

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency
Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The average Turkish family believes it has insufficient knowledge on a number of pertinent issues, yet 65 percent think it is “unnecessary” to attend educational programs that could help them rectify their problems, recent research has revealed.
The “Turkish Families’ Educational Needs” survey, which was conducted among 7,000 Turkish families by the Family and Social Policies Ministry, revealed that the average Turkish family believes it does not have enough education on legal issues, sexual health problems, violence and adolescent education.
Many also said they had little knowledge on subjects such as children’s television and Internet addiction, children’s educational needs, family communication problems, first aid, inheritance law, pre-nuptial agreements, domestic violence, sexual abuse, the rights of the disabled and drug addiction.

Information from TV instead of school

When asked whether or not they would be eager to attend an educational program that could help them with commonly encountered problems, between 57 and 65 percent of the families surveyed said it was “not necessary” and added that information from TV and newspapers was sufficient to solve their problems.
Couples who have been married for more than 16 years are not keen on attending an educational course, the research showed.
The minority who reported that they were willing to attend education classes on important problems said they would prefer such courses to be operated by the Education Ministry rather than nongovernmental organizations.
 Adolescents and the elderly see themselves as the least knowledgeable, the report revealed. Middle-aged people, especially public servants and those working on a freelance basis, said they had more information on the topics in question.