This chapter covers the major educational objectives of the Turkish Educational system with regards to the general educational strategies as well as the nationwide reforms and projects that are planned and applied to reach those objectives. In addition, the chapter covers the certification studies that enable recognition and description of the national educational outputs in the international arena, the impact of the EU educational policies on employment provisions and the Turkish educational system in every educational cycle including the mass education in chronological order.
General Educational Strategies and Major Objectives
2023 Educational Vision, manifested by the Ministry of National Education, which works under the auspices of the cabinet that operates with the Presidency Governmental System, includes the general policies and outcomes concerning the educational system. In this respect, materializing the perspective in line with the micro and macro educational vision requires a holistic approach to designing and developing a working system for education. While taking the pieces of the whole into account, it is important to catch the holistic nature of the educational mechanisms; integrity of the systemic components, relevant sub-systems and particles are to be handled in an interactional approach. From this point of view, the manifesto depicted by the Educational Vision is composed of the following components: Assessment and Evaluation, Development and Management of Human Resources, Financing the Schooling System, Inspection and Institutional Guidance Services, Guidance and Psychological Counseling, Special Education, Gifted Education, Foreign Language Education, Digital Contents and Skills-based Transformation in Educational Provisions, Early Childhood, Basic Education, Secondary Education, Vocational and Technical Education, Special Education and Lifelong Learning,
The following objectives are pinpointed within the Educational Vision document:
The difference in quality among the schools will diminish;
Schools will be transformed into a context where students take part in happily;
Vocational secondary schools will become a point of attraction;
The pressure of high stakes examinations will diminish;
Children will display skills of the contemporary era;
Teachers and school heads will experience professional satisfaction;
Early childhood education will become pervasive; and
Children with special needs will be catered with opportunities for high-quality education.
It is, therefore, the Turkish educational strategy that has been manifested in the MoNE 2023 Educational Vision. The strategic plan of the Ministry that was prepared in line with the MoNE 2023 Educational Vision aims at “developing an educational system that educates healthy, happy and ready-to-life individuals” and to attain success in this specific objective, the 7 objectives and 24 separate goals were identified, as follows:
Outcome 1: All of our students will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, attitude, and behavior that relate to our civilization, common heritage of humanity and contemporary necessities of our era.
Outcome 2: An administration and organizational structure will be developed and become pervasive, which is based on modern norms, effective and efficient.
Outcome 3: The multi-faceted, cognitive, affective and kinesthetic, development of our children will be supported in early childhood, basic and secondary education.
Outcome 4: It is aimed to educate students who are ready to contribute to the country and the community with regards to social, cultural and economic aspects of development, and to educate in them in secondary education line with their abilities, capacities to have them become problem solvers.
Outcome 5: It is aimed to support individuals with physical, psychological and cognitive disadvantages via improving the provisions of special education and counseling services.
Outcome 6: Vocational and technical education, as well as lifelong learning provisions, will be reshaped in line with the needs of the society, expectations of the business sector and requirements of the knowledge era.
Outcome 7: All of our schools will be transformed into the special-education friendly structure by taking the international norms and standards into account.
Except for these general objectives, there are certain long term strategic plans for higher education and these studies have some daily implications. Competence in higher education refers to what an individual graduated from a higher-education institution is capable of doing, knowing and what skills an individual possesses upon graduation. In this respect, the National Competences Framework defines the competencies in the educational system and prescribes their relations among each other. Turkish Competences Framework has been designed in line with the European Competences Framework and it addresses primary, secondary and tertiary educational strata including vocational, general and academic educational programs and other learning experiences acquired via various learning programs. Turkish Higher Education Competencies Framework was accepted in CoHE’s General Board decision in 21.01.2010 and all of the higher education institutions are to be organized in line with this framework.
A General Look at the Educational Reform Process and Variables
The documents that shape the studies and improvements in the Turkish educational system are as follows: The 64th Government’s Program, 64th Government Action Plan for 2016, Tenth Development Plan, Alignment of the EU Acquisition Program, New Economic Plan, 19th Council Decisions, Lifelong Learning and Action Document within the EU framework, MEB 2023 Educational Vision, Strategic Plan of the MoNE (2019-2023) and Strategic Document and Action Plan of Vocational and Technical Education.
Reorganization studies for the MoNE were enacted in line with the Presidency Governmental System, in the regulation entitled “1stPresidency Organizational Ordinance”, which reframed the scope of the responsibilities to be held by the MoNE. According to this Ordinance, the organization of the MoNE was structured as 1) Central organization, 2) Abroad organization and 3) Peripheral Organization. The central organization is composed of the Minister’s office, Vice Ministers’ office, and 22 working units. The peripheral organization is composed of the city and province directorates of the MoNE. The ministry office for international relations is composed of educational attachés and counselors in the embassies.
Quality Framework of National Education
The key acquisitions of the students, infrastructure, financial and physical infrastructure, preparedness, educational context and environment, participation of the social areas, lifelong learning, mobility, success and transfers, context of monitoring, risk evaluation, monitoring activities, information and communication as well as other variables are included as key standards and criteria. The MoNE schools and their success are monitored and evaluated in terms of those indicators and then reported in order that a reliable, valid and data-driven mechanism shall be activated to help develop educational policies (Decision of the Higher Planning Board, dated 6/3/2014 numbered 2015/6 Official Newspaper numbered 29364 on 23 May 2015).
In addition to those studies, the MoNE and Board of Education prepared secondary-education course programs for some languages and dialects that are spoken across the country by the 2012/2013 educational year. Those languages are Abkhaz language, Adyghe, Georgian language, Kurdish (Zaza language and Kurmanci language (dialects of Kurdish). They are offered optionally.
In addition, the statement "Refugees, temporary protectionists and non-stateless people will be involved in the integration of these pupils into the education system to ensure that they are educated as long as they are present" is stated in the MoNE Strategic Plan (2015-2019). This strategy also sets out the framework for educational and social work for Syrian refugees in our country. In this scope; Migration and Emergency Education Department has been established within the General Directorate of Lifelong Learning.
Standard Systems for Early Childhood Education and Primary Education Institutions
The standard system was developed to improve the educational state institutions affiliated to the General Directorate of Basic Education, including early childhood education, primary and lower-secondary schools. The system aims at collecting the relevant data about the educational provisions in these cycles and analyzing the data to depict a scholarly picture of these institutions. It is developed within the MEBBIS database and as an e-School support module, which enables evaluation of the educational outcomes. The system was first exploited in a 2010-2011 educational year across the country. It is also updated annually depending on the dynamic nature of the educational system and provisions, and also the variability of the “Institutional Standards”.
Three standard domains and, 9 standard and 36 sub-standards are utilized in parallel with these regulations: Educational Administration of Early Childhood Education and Primary Education and Support Provisions for Learning and Teaching Processes (Health, Security and Nutrition).
The ultimate objective of the Institutional Standards is to identify the minimum standards as criteria to approach educational institutions so as to analyze them with regards to their strengths and weaknesses and to offer remedial solutions that are based on educational policies that promote equality in educational opportunities.