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Education: A reminder to PM
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Under the coordination of the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabancı University, the Education Reform Initiative, or ERG, issued an "Equality in education: Policy analysis and suggestions" report this week. In a way, this report was an answer to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who for some time updated his "every family must have at least three kids otherwise tomorrow it will be too late" rhetoric with the "No, three is not enough, every family must have at least five kids" oddity.
The ERG report (http://www.erg.sabanciuniv.edu) puts a magnifying glass on the anomalous situation of the Turkish education system, as well as on the continued serious gender inequality problem in the country. For example, I would not think until reading the report that the probability of a daughter of a high school graduate father going to high school education is still less than 2 percent, or the highest income group spends 21 fold higher to the education of their kids than the lowest income group.
Bitter figures
The ERG report is underlining some very striking conclusions. Some of them were:
* The rate of participation in education of girls in southeastern parts of the country is half of that in Istanbul.
* The highest income group has a 21 fold higher education spending than the lowest income group. While 28 percent of the 7 to 23 age group in the highest income group have access to higher education, in the lowest income group only 0.4 percent can have a university education.
* 15 percent of the 15 to 19 age group don’t have primary school certificate.
* Seven in every 10 Turks who did not receive proper primary education are girls.
* In the age 15 group, 32 percent don’t understand what they read while 52 percent of them cannot solve simple mathematics problems.
* The probability of a girl with three brothers in a rural low-income family of primary school graduate parents is in between 1 to 2 percent. Whereas, in an urban family with university graduate parents a boy has 68 to 70 percent probability of graduating from a high school.
* Of the students from the lowest socioeconomic group 51 percent go to vocational schools and high schools with multiple programs while 5 percent go to the Anadolu High Schools. Of the students from the highest socioeconomic group, on the other hand, only three percent go to vocational schools while 49 percent go to Anadolu High Schools.
* One year increase in the education level of parents has a reflection of three percent increase in the probability of participation in education by girl students.
* One year increase in the education level of father has a reflection of ten percent increase in girls and 15 percent increase in boys participating in higher education.
* In families where the mother is the sole parent, participation of girls is 38 percent lower in primary education and 69 percent lower in higher education.
* In families where more than half of the income comes from agriculture, the rate of girls participating in education is 19 percent less than that of the boys.
* Although eight-year primary education has become compulsory, 100 percent of schooling is not yet achieved. There are marked regional differences. For example the probability of a girl living in rural areas of southeastern Turkey having access to a school is between 48 to 52 percent.
Larger population or better
education?
For Erdoğan, having a more populous and younger Turkish nation appears to be far more important than having a properly educated society. However it is the state’s duty to provide equality in education. Rather than advising people to have three, five or more kids or perhaps rather than wasting the resources of the nation to buy votes by distributing alms, this country must accelerate its investments in education.
However, while the backward and illiterate can easily be politically manipulated, such a thing will become rather difficult in a better educated society. Naturally, it might be more advisable for political leaders to advise people have more kids than concentrating on providing better education for our kids.
Bitter figures
The ERG report is underlining some very striking conclusions. Some of them were:
* The rate of participation in education of girls in southeastern parts of the country is half of that in Istanbul.
* The highest income group has a 21 fold higher education spending than the lowest income group. While 28 percent of the 7 to 23 age group in the highest income group have access to higher education, in the lowest income group only 0.4 percent can have a university education.
* 15 percent of the 15 to 19 age group don’t have primary school certificate.
* Seven in every 10 Turks who did not receive proper primary education are girls.
* In the age 15 group, 32 percent don’t understand what they read while 52 percent of them cannot solve simple mathematics problems.
* The probability of a girl with three brothers in a rural low-income family of primary school graduate parents is in between 1 to 2 percent. Whereas, in an urban family with university graduate parents a boy has 68 to 70 percent probability of graduating from a high school.
* Of the students from the lowest socioeconomic group 51 percent go to vocational schools and high schools with multiple programs while 5 percent go to the Anadolu High Schools. Of the students from the highest socioeconomic group, on the other hand, only three percent go to vocational schools while 49 percent go to Anadolu High Schools.
* One year increase in the education level of parents has a reflection of three percent increase in the probability of participation in education by girl students.
* One year increase in the education level of father has a reflection of ten percent increase in girls and 15 percent increase in boys participating in higher education.
* In families where the mother is the sole parent, participation of girls is 38 percent lower in primary education and 69 percent lower in higher education.
* In families where more than half of the income comes from agriculture, the rate of girls participating in education is 19 percent less than that of the boys.
* Although eight-year primary education has become compulsory, 100 percent of schooling is not yet achieved. There are marked regional differences. For example the probability of a girl living in rural areas of southeastern Turkey having access to a school is between 48 to 52 percent.
Larger population or better
education?
For Erdoğan, having a more populous and younger Turkish nation appears to be far more important than having a properly educated society. However it is the state’s duty to provide equality in education. Rather than advising people to have three, five or more kids or perhaps rather than wasting the resources of the nation to buy votes by distributing alms, this country must accelerate its investments in education.
However, while the backward and illiterate can easily be politically manipulated, such a thing will become rather difficult in a better educated society. Naturally, it might be more advisable for political leaders to advise people have more kids than concentrating on providing better education for our kids.
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