Country of origin information report Turkey March 2007

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23.17 The USSD 2005 report further stated that:
“Only the Diyanet is authorized to provide religion courses outside of school, although clandestine private courses existed. Only children 12 and older could legally register for official Koran courses, and Mazlum-Der reported that police often raided illegal courses for younger children...”[5b] (Section 2) “According to UNHCR, there were indications that Chechens suffered economic hardship because of their lack of a clearly defined legal status made it difficult for them to find employment. The lack of legal status also prevented most Chechen children from enrolling in public schools…” [5b] (section 2)
23.18 The European Commission 2006 report however noted that:
“With respect to children’s rights, the right to education for children, particularly girls, remains a problem in some areas. The newly initiated 'conditional cash transfer' programme implemented by the Social Support and Solidarity Fund provides incentives and compensation to targeted families by offering cash transfers on the condition that they send their children to school if they are of school age. Enrolment campaigns need to be sustained and consolidated to address the low level of school attendance, in particular in rural areas of the South East.” [71a] (p19)
23.19 The BIA News Center however reported that:
“Turkey's new school term started this Monday with 14 million primary and secondary school students heading off to school where only 595 thousand teachers are available to teach them, while the lack of a sufficient number of classrooms to do so remains to haunt the country's education system. A report prepared by the Education and Science Workers Union (Egitim-Sen) on the situation of education at the beginning of the 2006-2007-school term, has identified a shortage of teachers and classrooms as the primary problems continuing to face this sector. The report also stressed that problems created by the ongoing shortage of both were only compounded with other obstacles in front of education, among them school reconstructions and repairs that could not be finalized in time to open the facilities for education. Even more important though was the political staffing at schools, which came parallel to procedures such as internal exile, penalties and layoffs where thousands of education workers were aggrieved despite the shortages problem.” [102 l]
Child care
23.20 The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2002 reported that “Children whose parents for whatever reason are unable to exercise custody are usually looked after by the family.” However, if the relatives are unable to do this, the Netherlands report stated that:
“Turkish law (Law No. 2828 of 24 May 1983, on the Social Services and Child Protection Agency) provides for state care for unsupported minors. Only if care is not possible elsewhere may the case be referred to the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (Sosyal Hizmetler ve Çocuk Esirgeme Kurumu) coming under the Ministry of General Affairs. The Agency refers the minor’s case to the court, which takes the ultimate decision on care.” [2a] (p152-153)
23.21 The report continued:
“Under Turkish law, depending on the length of their education unsupported minors can be taken into care at least up to the age of 18 and at most up to the age of 25. Children up to the age of 18 may register or be registered with the Social Services Directorate (Sosyal Hizmetler Müdürlüğü), to be found in every province. There are children’s homes (Çocuk Yuvalari) for children up to the age of 12 and training institutions (Yetiştirme Yurtları) for children aged 12-18. There are currently an estimated 70 children’s homes in Turkey with a total of roughly 7,000 children, and 91 training institutions with 5,000 young adults. In some cases young adults who do not have their own home on reaching the age of 18 may be allowed to stay longer.” [2a] (p153)