Country of origin information report Turkey March 2007

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23.12 The USSD 2005 report stated that:
“Government-provided education through age 14 or the eighth grade is free, universal, and compulsory. The maximum age to which public schooling was provided was 18. Traditional family values in rural areas placed a greater emphasis on education for sons than for daughters. According to the government, 95.4 percent of girls and 99.2 percent of boys in the country attended primary school; however, the UN reported during the year that in the eastern and southeastern regions of the country more than 50 percent of girls between 6 and 14 did not attend school.” [5b] (Section 5)
23.13 As highlighted by UNICEF, the main barriers to girls’ education were the followings:
“Shortage of schools and classrooms; schools are often situated far from home and many parents do not want their children, especially girls, to travel far; parents do not want to send children to schools that are in a poor physical state with no toilets or running water; many families suffer economic hardship; the traditional gender bias of families favours the needs of men and boys over those of women and girls; the need to augment domestic income by keeping children at home to work; many parents consider the early marriage of their girls to be more important than their education; female role models in rural communities are scarce – or entirely absent; opportunities for secondary education are rare, discouraging interest at primary level.” [91a]
23.14 As recorded on the UNICEF website on 29 December 2005:
“Only sixty-nine percent of girls attend primary school in Turkey. But thanks to a major education drive, over a quarter of a million more children have enrolled in school since 2003 – and 175,000 of these are girls. The campaign, dubbed ‘Hey Girls, Let’s Go to School,’ depends on a vast network of volunteers who go door-to-door to lobby parents on the value of education. Volunteers from a wide variety of professions are signing up and the programme has received support from prominent politicians, including the Prime Minister and First Lady of Turkey. In Van, where the nationwide campaign was launched over two years ago, poverty and cultural traditions have historically kept girls at home. Up to half of all girls in this eastern province are estimated to be out of school. Through the efforts of the campaign, 20,000 girls have enrolled for the first time.” [91b]
23.15 UNICEF further reported that “Persistent poverty and insufficient resources continue to plague the educational system in Turkey. Schools are scarce and overcrowded; conditions in urban slums and rural areas are especially bad. And for families that are struggling to afford food, even the most basic school supplies can be well out of reach.” [91b]
Religious Education
23.16 The USSD 2005 report also noted that:
“The law establishes eight years of compulsory secular education for students. After completing the eight years, students may pursue study at imam hatip (Islamic preacher) high schools. Imam hatip schools are classified as vocational, and graduates of vocational schools faced an automatic reduction in their university entrance exam grades if they applied for university programs outside their field of high school specialization. This reduction effectively barred imam hatip graduates from enrolling in university programs other than theology. Most families that enrolled their children in imam hatip schools did so to expose them to more extensive religious education, not to train them as imams.” [5b] (Section 2)