Submitted by Michael van der Galiën
Eastern Turkey is the country’s poorest region. A lot of Kurds live in that area, and a lot of poor Turkish people as well. These individuals have had little to no education, and still live in accordance with the beliefs, prejudices and ways of their ancestors.
Although Turkey’s culture is great in many ways, it’s not so great in many other. The people in the East are often very conservative, and not very modern or enlightened. When we hear about Turkish immigrants in the West, who misbehave so tremendously, and who kill their daughters because they refuse to wear headscarfs, or have a Western (and Christian) boyfriend, we often forget that Turks from Western and Central Turkey aren’t like that at all; it are mostly Eastern Turks we hear about.
The main reason for the above is simple: the area has not been given the attention it deserves. It has stayed behind, or at least not made a lot of progress in decades. Some things have changed, but the culture has not. Where women in the West, and especially in the big cities, have emancipated, they are still humble and oppressed in the East, especially in the villages. The citizens there are not educated, or if they are, their education was of such a terrible quality that they may just as well not have gone to school at all.
Education is not encouraged in those areas, this in contrast with the West and Central regions. There, people believe that education is of the utmost importance. In the East, however, people all too often believe that education is not truly important; it’s all about God, customs, and farm work.
This while education has changed so much in the West (of Turkey). So much even, that Easterners and Westerners often appear to be coming from completely different countries altogether. All too often when gets the impression, when talking to Turks from the West or Heartland, that they look down upon their fellow countrymen in the East; they truly cannot get along well, the differences in culture and views are gigantic. When one, at the same time, talks to people from the East, one quickly comes to the conclusion that they believe that their fellow countrymen from the West are living ‘Godless.’
Of course, the lack of education in the East has not merely resulted in a lack of cultural progress; there are also a whole lot of economic problems. The East is poor, and undeveloped. The people there lack just about everything.
As said, one of the main reasons for this is a lack of education. How difficult can it be, one may wonder, to educate the citizens in the East? Well, quite difficult. Turkey is not a rich country, although it is becoming richer every year. Some regions are also hard to reform education-wise, simply because people there still live according to ancient norms and values. And then there is the little fact that teachers who teach in the East, often leave immediately after their term has expired; they are sent by the government to teach in the East for a short amount of time, but after this time, they quickly go back to the Central or Western parts of their country. The East is poor and undeveloped, what modern person wants to live and work there?
Well, not many, and as a result, children in the East have often experienced eight to ten different teachers at the time they are elementary grade students. This constant change of teacher is incredibly problematic; they never develop a bond with their teacher, and, just at the moment the student may find school fun, or interesting, the teacher leaves and is replaced by another one. Every time, the students have to get used to the new teacher. When they are used to him / her, (s)he leaves again.
And so, Eastern Turkish schools perform worst in nationwide tests.
But Turkey’s educational systems are not confined to this region:
Some regions in Turkey’s eastern region might struggle with financial and social abandonment, but students from every part of society are also beset with a deficient education system that many hope will improve with a new curriculum. Tens of thousands of elementary school graduates were dismayed by the results of the OKS, another slap in the face of authorities in the Turkish education system. More than 30,000 students scored points “not worth calculating,” according to Çelik.
Associate professor Ömer Kutlu of Ankara University’s education faculty said poor results stem from a lack of capacity to understand what is heard or read on the part of many students. “Turkey scores very low in international studies on literary effectiveness,” he said and added that the system pushes students toward greater competition in test taking skills. An Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 2006 report revealed that 40 percent of Turkish 15-year-old students scored one on a scale of six on tests that measure text comprehension skills.
”The problem lies with the teachers, who sometimes lack enough skills,” Kutlu said and added that the whole system is oriented toward making children able to solve tests, not preparing them for life.
When it comes to education, a lot remains to be done in Turkey. Education is one of the corner stones of Kemalist ideology, and of modern countries in general terms. Without education, without a significant improvement in education, Turkey will never fullfil its potential.
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