Responsible Bodies

ECEC settings for children up to age 3

The Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Services is responsible for evaluation, inspection, workplace trainings and investigation of ECEC settings for children up to age 3 (crèches and day-care centers). The regulation for crèches and day-care centers provides the details of licensing a state or private ECEC institution, the physical and pedagogical criteria in detail as well as the training of the personnel and the standards of security.

ECEC settings for children over 3

Evaluation, inspection, workplace trainings and investigation in early childhood educationis carried out by education inspectors. External evaluation of the educational institutions is carried out by the education inspectors affiliated to Board of Education Inspectors in Province Directorates of National Education. This evaluation process is framed by the regulation called the Guidelines of Inspection of Early Childhood Educational Institutions.

As for the inspection and evaluation of the teachers working at early childhood education institutions, school principals are assigned specific responsibilities. Teachers are monitored in each academic semester. The monitoring process, which primarily aims at the development of the teachers, may be supported by an inspector visit demanded by the principal from the Province Directorate of National Education in case school principals report a particular problem peculiar to specific teaching field. Furthermore, provided that the Board of Counseling and Inspection in a specific province does not possess an inspector of the teaching field, about which a given teacher is to be observed, the Board may ask from the Ministry to assign an inspector to fulfill this observation and evaluation task. Also, teachers who found successful are offered an award by their school to the province or town administration.

Teachers, with the principals, actively participate in the internal evaluation process in the early childhood education schools to secure the quality assurance. Plans are made and further actions to secure the development of the institution/school in meetings headed by the school principal, called ‘teachers board’ and ‘field teachers board’. The contents and themes of those compulsory meetings are framed in the regulations of the institutions concerned. The reports and suggestions detailed in those internal evaluation meetings are then reviewed by the education inspectors for external evaluation and inspection.

Primary and secondary education

Evaluation, inspection, workplace trainings and investigation in primary and secondary education in MoNE schools is carried out by education inspectors. In primary and secondary education cycles, the schools are expected to carry out a ‘self-evaluation’ process, in which schools prepare a report depicting their strengths, weaknesses as well as objectives. This quality mechanism is part of a quality assurance continuum including external evaluation and accreditation. In 2019 all of the schools were commissioned to prepare a self-evaluation report; however, external evaluation was administered primarily to what MoNE calls the “project schools”.

Approaches and Methods for Quality Assurance

ECEC settings for children over 3, primary and general secondary education

Early childhood education institutions are visited by the education inspectors so as to carry out the duties of counselling, inspection and monitoring. Within those visits, the school principals and other administrative staff are inspected and evaluated in institutions of early childhood education, both state and private ones. In addition, a specific study is materialized in every three years: The schools are inspected in terms of whether the problems portrayed in the developmental inspection reports were resolved.

The inspection guidance form is used by the Directorate of Guidance and Inspection in the inspection of the early childhood education as well as primary and secondary education, which is run by the Directorate of Education Inspectors within the 81 City National Education Directorates at local level. In addition, the studies of the education inspectors conducted at city level and their reports are monitored and evaluated by ‘General Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation’ in the central organization.

In order to secure quality assurance, teachers do participate in the internal evaluation process along with the principals. This internal evaluation process is rather a developmental and a compulsory one. Internal evaluation of the school is carried out in various meetings: ‘Teachers board’ is gathered with the directorship of the school principal, ‘course teachers board’ is gathered with the field teachers instructing to the same classes as well as ‘field teachers’ board’ composes of the same teachers, during which plans are developed to improve the educational quality of the school concerned.

Within the annual plans prepared by the education inspectors affiliated to the Board Education Inspectors in Province Directorate of National Education, all the schools are inspected and evaluated. The visits by inspectors in schools last around 2-5 days, during which educational activities, administrative and financial processes are monitored and evaluated based on the criteria framed within the relevant regulations and finally, suggestions are made to the institution for the future planning and progress. Also, the results are shared with the teachers and the administrators. Although the visits are described as a three-year one, more frequent visits can possibly be offered to the schools. The inspection guideline is published on the webpage of the Board of Counseling and Inspection so that the ECEC, primary and secondary schools/institutions and administrators become initially aware of criteria based on the inspection and evaluation processes.

Upon planning the guideline for the inspection of ECEC, primary and secondary schools, inspection types of the Board of Counseling and Inspection and Board of Education Inspectors are taken as the major references. It is aimed to shed light on the studies of the counselors and education inspectors, to standardize the content and process of the education inspections across the country. The laws and regulations which are in effect are taken into consideration during the inspections.

School inspection processes carried out by education inspectors basically focus on educational activities, administrative and financial processes. The guideline includes criteria and sub fields of those three major fields. Those fields and sub-fields are as follows:

1. Educational Activities

• Education-training processes
• Outcome of the education-training processes
• Problems
• Suggested solutions

2. Educational Environments • Basic Information of the School • Physical Condition •    Security precautions •    Problems •    Solution proposals

3. Educational Activities • Teaching Activities • Educational Events • Results of Educational Activities •    Problems •    Solution proposals

4. Management Activities • Human Resources Business and Transactions • Research and Planning • Organizing •    Student affairs • School Bus Vehicles • Access to Education through Transport • Audit, Monitoring and Evaluation • Communication and Governance •    Information systems • Hostel Works • Results of Management Activities •    Problems •    Solution proposals

5. Financial Affairs and Transactions • Use of Financial Resources •    School Counsil • Transactions Regarding Insured Personnel • Movable Goods Transactions •    Problems •    Solution proposals

6. Studies Conducted Within the Scope of COVID-19 Measures 7. Monitoring and Evaluation 8. Admin Information 9. Sample Applications 10. General Evaluation

Descriptions that relate to the problems pointed out in the inspection reports and suggestions are made for those problems. The reports are sent to the schools and at the same time, they are submitted to the Province/Town Directorates of National Education. Improvement plans are to be made in line with the suggestions proposed by the inspectors. For each of the problem illustrated in the improvement plan, the following dimensions are to be addressed by:

The School/Institution/Unit Addressing the Solution:

• Institutions to cooperate with for the solution
• Actions to be taken for the solution
• Duration for the solution (Month-Year)
• The improvement plans of the schools are monitored by Province/Town Directorates of National Education.

The inspection reports include problems identified during the evaluation process and suggested solutions for those problems at institutional level. Those reports are assigned to the school as well as the directorate of national education at provinces or towns. Based on the evaluation of the education inspectors, schools are to prepare a developmental plan. Those plans are to include the following issues for each area of inspection:

• Responsible unit/school/institution to fulfill the solution
• Responsible unit/school/institution to cooperate for the solution
• Actions to be taken toward the solution
• Estimated time frame for the solution (Month-Year)

The inspection guidance form is utilized by the Directorate of Guidance and Inspection in the inspection of the ECEC, primary and secondary schools. By referring to the indicators of the quality framework, schools can be monitored and inspected by the MoNE with regards to the quality standards. Within the 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 success of the schools must be 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.

Secondary vocational education

In order to educate the human resources that are required by the business sector of vocational and technical education, a quality assurance system in vocational and technical education was established in 09.05.2019, and entitled “Guideline for Quality Assurance in Vocational and Technical Education Institutions”. Institution based self-evaluation is carried out in the light of this Guideline, which includes the “Quality Assurance Guidelines”. According to this guideline, self-evaluation is carried out:

• Considering the guideline prepared by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education,
• Objectively and evidence based,
• And an action plan is prepared by the institution in line with the outcome of the self-evaluation report,
• Annually, based on the schedule prepared by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education.

External evaluation is carried out by the staff appointed by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education or a team composed of the representatives of the private sector. This process focuses on the evidence; documents, reports and other artifacts that represent the educational provisions of the educational institutions. According to the guideline, this process is actualized based on the following phases:

• Educational institutions are subject to the external evaluation based on the guideline prepared by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education.
• The evaluation is carried out by the staff appointed by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education.
• An external evaluation report is prepared by the evaluators based on the guideline format imposed by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education.
• The tentative report prepared by the external evaluators is shared by the given institution and the educational institution is expected to provide reflections about the report in ten days.
• Then the final report is sent to the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education.
• In line with the schedule prepared by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education, external evaluation is actualized at least once in five years.
• Self-assessment and external evaluation activities were suspended during the Covid-19 process, and the SELFIE self-assessment tool was implemented in schools designated as pilots during this period.