Turkey’s Real Problem

PoliGazette takes a look at Turkey’s real problem. It is not what you may think it is.

IZMIR, TURKEY –

For a couple of years, the major issue of debate in Turkey has been the separation of church and state; the country’s politicians focused almost exclusively on this subject after it became clear that the Justice and Development Party (or AK Parti) wants to increase the role religion plays in the public sphere (or allow more religious freedom, choose the interpretation you agree with). For months, all Turkish politicians talked about was whether or not female students should be allowed to wear the headscarf in universities.

Although laicism is indeed important, politicians have made too much of the headscarf issue; while debating about whether or not a woman can wear a scarf on her head, nothing was done about the real problem in Turkey. Better, the real Turkish problem was ignored.

Turkey’s real problem is not the economy, although it is a major issue. Nor is it laicism / the influence of religious conservative individuals on the government. It is not Erkenegon, and it is not the Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It is education.

Compared to the rest of Europe Turkey’s education system is horrible. It is sorely lacking in a variety of ways, but especially with regards to teaching students foreign languages.

During my visits to Turkey I have seen how teachers try to teach this highly important foreign language to their students. Sadly there are some problems. For instance, the average teacher is hardly able to communicate with a foreigner in English. His vocabulary is not big enough, his accent is too strong and he is nervous because he seldom speaks English to foreigners; he is used to speaking English to Turks, who often do not notice the horrible accent of their fellow Turk and his pathetic lack of a somewhat normal-sized vocabulary.

As if the above is not enough, I have been told by several Turks that the grading system in Turkey is somewhat, how shall I put this… Utopian.

The highest grade is one star, the lowest grade one. Well, one would think that when a 15 year old high school student is only able to say ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ and ‘fine, thank you’ in English, he does not deserve more than one, or at most, two stars, right?

Not so in Turkey. I have met many high school students who are literally incapable of completing two or three sentences in English. Yet, their teachers give them four or five stars.

One of the reasons for this Utopian grading system is, I have been told, that teachers have the tendency to reward students who are silent, obedient and anxious to learn. When that student writes an essay or makes a test, the teacher seemingly tends to think “I should reward him for his good behavior.”

Another major cause for the lack of knowledge of English among Turks in general and (high school) students specifically is, according to Turkish friends and (future) teachers I talked to, that students are taught the exact same things over and over again. As one of the individuals I talked to remarked, “in the first year I studied English the teacher said ‘today we will study single present tense.’ In the second year he said ‘today we will study single present tense.’ In the third year the teacher said ‘today we will study single present tense…’ And you wonder why 95% of Turks do not speak English well?”

The above signifies a real problem in Turkey’s education system. English is of immense importance. It is alright for a third world country not to teach its citizens English, but for a rapidly developing country like Turkey, with big aspirations, teaching English to its citizens when they are still young is a necessity.

If one wants to compete in the world, if one wants to become richer in a constantly globalizing world, and if one wants to catch up economically with Western countries, one has to know English. Turkish is the language of Turkey, but English is the language of the world. One’s English does not have to be perfect – mine is not for instance – but it should be sufficient for one to express oneself accurately and to debate important issues. “How are you?” does not suffice.

In order to improve the situation, Turkey’s government will have to invest big-time in education. University students aspiring to become English teachers should be sent abroad; either during their studies, or immediately afterwards. They should be forced to speak English 24/7 for a period of several months. Everything they do, everything they want, they should made clear in English.

Furthermore, the Turkish government should keep a close eye on how teachers grade their students. Four stars for a student who knows jack is unacceptable. A checks and balances method should be cooked up, one that actually works. When one teacher grades his students, another teacher from a different school should double check. Competition among teachers and schools should be encouraged. Teachers that deliver better results have to be rewarded, teachers that perform badly punished. The same, of course, goes for schools.

Another important reason Turkish students suffer from a chronic lack of English speaking, writing and understanding skills is, conversations have led me to believe, the Turkish government’s habit to send new teachers to poor regions (in the East) where they have to serve for a specific, short amount of time, after which they can go back to the richer regions. These new teachers have to educate poor students, but often lack the passion to do in a satisfying manner. The reason for this lack of passion is that they do not want to teach in the East. They are forced to go their by their government. Many of them seem to tremendously dislike the East; they consider the people backwards and uneducated (quite an accurate, albeit negative, description of course). All they long for when they are in the East is to go back to the ‘ developed, modern world. Once they can, they go.

Teachers need conviction and passion. If not, they do not teach their students what they should teach them. When a student fails to make any progress, the teacher could not care less. ‘Lets give him four stars,’ the teacher thinks, ‘nobody cares anyway.’

In order to do something about this, the Turkish government could consider encouraging rather than forcing new teachers to go to the East. When a teacher agrees to go to the East, pay him considerably extra. Money makes the world go ’round and it makes teachers do what they should do; educate your children. Furthermore, when a teacher does so for a prolonged period – five, six years instead of, say, six months – he should receive even more benefits; both financial and in other ways (make it more easy for a teacher to travel to foreign countries, for instance, so he can improve their language skills). Make sure that the teacher becomes part of the village or city he moves to in the East; set up a ‘welcoming’ system, which immediately results in the new teacher having many friends with whom they can socialize. Make it more easy for a teacher who goes to the East to take his spouse and children along. Help the partner of the teacher find a new job in their new village / city / region. If the job pays less than what they are used to, subsidize them (temporarily) and help them out in other ways (take care of housing, for instance).

Sending students en masse abroad and the other reforms proposed in this short column may cost a lot of money while Turkey is far from rich – yes, I know – but the fact of the matter is that improving Turks’ English skills is not a choice; it is an absolute necessity. The Turkish government spends millions of Liras (the new one of course) on far less important things. In order to do all the above Turkey does not to need to make more money rapidly. Instead, it has to get its priorities straightened out.

Finally it has to be remarked that the reforms mentioned in this op-ed are, to a degree, applicable on education in its entirety. Of course education is not about English alone. Other courses are just as important as English, and the government should invest in these courses (mathematics for instance, but also reading skills in Turkish – my Turkish is rapidly improving, but my interaction with Turks has given me the impression that quite some Turks do not speak Turkish well – are important).

If Turkey does not improve its education system soon, and especially with regards to English, it will have a terrible hard time catching up with the West. Not because Turks do not want to catch up, or because they are too lazy, but because they lack the basic skills one needs to survive in this modern world.